


My Roots and My Scars: They Run Deep

by thepizzasitter



Series: How We Fit (Your Hands In Mine) Verse [8]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: All of the abuse related tags are NOT between Leon Raihan and Piers, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bottom Dande | Leon, Bottom Kibana | Raihan, Bottom Nezu | Piers, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Hand Jobs, Hurt/Comfort, I promise they will be alright, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Past Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Pokemon DLC, Polyamory, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Psychological Trauma, Quiet Sex, Rimming, Semi-Public Sex, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Sword and Shield DLC, Threesome - M/M/M, Top Dande | Leon, Top Kibana | Raihan, Top Nezu | Piers, Training, Water Sex, after his championship loss and before the battle tower, because that's how we roll in the shire, he raihan and piers are going to go to the isle of armor, hinted at and referenced but not spoken about directly, leon and raihan get to connect to their training roots and sort through a lot of feelings, leon isn't doing so good and needs some time to re focus himself, mustard and honey are amazing and kubfu is precious what else is new, piers has never been to the isle and falls in love with it, spoilers for the new dlc, the trio walks out of it stronger and as wildly in love as ever, they deal with past interactions with Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:54:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24787276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepizzasitter/pseuds/thepizzasitter
Summary: There was reverence in both their voices whenever they spoke of their time here, and Piers had been more than a little surprised they had chosen to bring him along. He’d thought the Isle would be everything he generally loathed. Quiet, disciplined, a healthy respect for authority, outdoor activity.He was going to end up a model citizen at this rate, already more than half in love with this place and the family that lived here.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan/Nezu | Piers, Dande | Leon/Nezu | Piers, Kibana | Raihan/Nezu | Piers
Series: How We Fit (Your Hands In Mine) Verse [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692952
Comments: 125
Kudos: 208





	1. Remember

**Author's Note:**

> I know I said the next installment would be something entirely different than this, but the DLC dropped and ohhhhh wow I needed to immediately write something for it. Heads up for spoilers and things that might not make sense if you haven't played or looked up gameplay/characters/plot, etc. I am happy to explain anything that needs clarification. Technically, this fic can be disregarded if needed in the broader YHIM verse if you want to skip it, but you will want to read the rest of the verse to go with this one. It goes in between Part Three (On My Knees) and Part Four (In A Time Long Past). Has a lot of tie-ins/reference to Part 6 (Holding On, Letting Go).
> 
> Edit: welp, as usual this ended up longer than I thought. -sigh- Smut related tags are for chapters 3 and 6. Trauma related tags are mostly for chapters 4-6 as the lads deal with some difficult stuff from their pasts. They will be alright, however, and come out of this better able to love and support each other as they move forward.
> 
> If you've read some of my other fics, you'll know that I frequently sing covers for them. In this one, I actually have an original set of lyrics! The original song was created in early June, and now I have version 2.0 finished! In the chapter with 'Sending Cheers', this is the version of the lyrics I wrote: [[x]](https://soundcloud.com/user-500586804/sending-cheers-original-lyrics-2/s-x81tvrNSaKF) Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Reminder to come hang out with me on Twitter! My main is ShyloRen and my Pokemon side account is CryptidPiers

Leon breathed in the smell of sea water and salt, the brine of the ocean familiar and more home to him than anything else in the world.

He sank to his knees and buried his fingers in the soft grass outside the station, not bothering to stop the tears he’d had a feeling would happen the moment he set foot on the Isle.

“ _Oh_ ,” he whispered, and it was more than a revelation, more than this single moment of understanding, but those accumulated through every journey here that had come before. He felt a hand on each of his shoulders and he laughed through his tears when Raihan and Piers joined him on the ground, holding him tightly and petting over his hair, his shoulders, his face.

“It’s so good to be back,” he whispered and his lovers tightened their arms around him, Raihan making a soft sound of agreement. “Didn’t know how badly I needed this.”

“Thanks for bringin’ us with you,” Piers said, running the backs of his knuckles over Leon’s cheek. “Been lookin’ forward to it for weeks.”

Raihan laughed and nodded. “In his natural habitat, so to speak! Can’t believe this is actually happening. Fuck, it’s been almost a decade.”

Leon breathed in deeply and stood, drawing them up with him as he grinned, letting Piers dry his tears with his sleeve and kiss him gently. “Can’t wait for you to meet the Master himself.”

Piers looked toward where the Dojo loomed in the distance, a nervous expression on his face.

“He’ll love you,” Raihan said, nudging his shoulder. “Like he loved us. Trust me, no one is better at seeing the best in everyone than ol’ Mustard. He’s absolutely brilliant and knows good people when he sees them.”

“Guess we’d better head that way, then,” Piers said noncommittally, and Leon shared an amused glance with Raihan behind the singer’s back. He would see soon enough. “C’mon, I need to get out of the sun before I inevitably burn. Rather not do that the first day.”

Raihan snickered as they shouldered their luggage and made the trek towards the Dojo. “Like a porcelain doll.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Piers grumbled. “Burn, peel, somehow come out paler than before. It’s the worst. I sure hope you’re right about the old man likin’ me because you two are on your own if you’re plannin’ on as many outdoor adventures as I assume you are.”

“Aw, c’mon, babe, you’re not going to come with us to whichever tower Lee and I choose?” Raihan asked incredulously.

“’Course I will for that, wouldn’t miss that come hell or heat stroke if you say it’s that important. Who else is gonna keep you two from gettin’ lost? But I’ll be stickin’ close to home for the rest of it, ta.”

Leon booed and laughed when Piers tweaked his ear in retaliation. “Honey will make sure you have plenty of sunblock for when you do come out with us.”

“Bless whoever that is for havin’ my back.”

“Mustard’s wife, she’s a pecha. Sweetest mum on the planet, and her lad’s name is Hyde. He’s like you, the outdoors and him aren’t mates. Kid’s a genius though, tinkers and makes all sorts of wild inventions. Got a bit of a mouth on him,” Raihan said with a grin.

“Do you remember when they brought him to meet us?” Leon asked, both of them dissolving into fits of giggles. “What was it he called me?”

“Oh fuck, I don’t even remember all of it, just that we were in front of the press and everyone seemed disappointed because they thought Master Mustard’s kid would be more like him.”

“That’s right,” Leon said darkly, his brows furrowed. “I’d forgotten that.”

“Hm, he held his own, though. He was what, six? Looked at you like you were the scum of the earth and said that…oh, I remember! He said ‘can’t hear whatever ignorance you all are spouting, but at least I can find my way out of a paper bag’! You bloody lost it right there on national telly!”

Piers and Leon burst out laughing.

“It was so funny!” Leon defended as he wheezed. “He looked ready to fight every last reporter _and_ me, and rightfully so! Ableist tits, the lot of them. He has hearing loss,” he explained when Piers shot him a quizzical look. “Invented his own hearing-aids though when he was eight, and they work wonders. Macro Cosmo wanted the tech, and he said his condition was that they could have it for free if their contracts included free hearing aids to whoever asked for them. It was one of the few programs Rose didn’t touch, so I made sure the new Chairman kept it going.”

Piers’ eyes softened and he smiled. “Smart lad.”

“He really is.”

They were nearly to the building when suddenly the doors flew open, several pink blurs streaking past them and running for the wetlands. Raihan shouted and stumbled back, landing the three of them on the ground as a group of students went running by them, not sparing a glance as they all shouted and disappeared over the crest of the hill.

“What the actual fu—”

“Now, Raihan, I know you’re not about to say such a naughty word in front of the little ones when you come inside,” came a voice over them as they groaned and sat up.

Leon’s eyes widened and he whipped his head around, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“Mus?”

Mustard’s face was more wizened than he remembered, a bend to his shoulders that hadn’t quite taken over when he had last seen the man, but his eyes were exactly the same. Full of understanding and welcome and so many things that had been missing in Leon’s life until he had first stepped onto the Isle and beheld his teacher.

“Leon, my darling lad, it is so good to see you. And Raihan, dearest boy, come here and set my spine to rights, won’t you both?”

This time, it was both of them with tears in their eyes as they locked their arms together around Mustard and lifted him up in the strongest hug they could give, delighting in the man’s laugher and the way he held them close, ruffling their hair.

“That’s the spirit! Now I won’t have to see my specialist for an extra month yet!” He chuckled when they set him back down. “Does my old bones good. But look at you two, it’s been far too long! You look so well.”

“We are,” Raihan said, and Leon’s cheeks hurt from smiling that widely. “We have so much to tell you! There’ve been so many changes, and I know you lot tend to be slow on the news cycle out here.”

Mustard groaned in agreement and shook his head. “That we are. I look forward to hearing everything I’ve missed. But first…” He reached down to hold his hand out to Piers, who was still on the ground, mouth agape and wide-eyed as he stared. “Introduce me to this fine-looking lad here.”

Piers took the old man’s hand to shake it and was surprised when he was easily lifted to his feet. Leon bit his lip against a smile at the flabbergasted look on the singer’s face at the unexpected strength.

“Ta, mate,” he said a bit unsteadily.

“Master, this is Piers, former leader of the Spikemuth gym and Galar’s resident rock star,” Leon said, laughing when Piers shot him a withering look.

“Oh, a musician? And a gym leader, how intriguing! I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”

“And Piers, this is Master Mustard, though we tend to call him Mus. Leader of the Armor Dojo and the man who taught Raihan and I virtually everything we know,” Leon said, slinging his arm around his Master’s shoulders. “Man, myth, and legend, all in one!”

“Nonsense, dear boy, you’ve both long surpassed me. Though…” Ah, and this is what Leon had been afraid of. He’d put this off for too long, thinking he could out-run it, and now one of the most important people in his life had found out about him losing the title through the news instead of his own mouth.

“Yeah,” he said, eyes downcast. Of all people, disappointing the man who had practically raised him would never be anything but anathema to him. “I’m…I’m in need of some re-training.”

“No, dear boy,” Mustard said gently, and Leon’s eyes snapped up to his, watching Raihan’s do the same out of the corner of his eye. “You’re in need of some re-centering. Some peace and quiet, and time to heal. I watched that match as it happened, wouldn’t have missed it for the world. You battled magnificently, as did she. I have never been more proud of you.”

“I lost,” Leon said, voice cracking. “After everything, I—”

“You two are some of the smartest lads I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching. Think, Leon. What would I have said to you as you walked off the field that day?”

He let himself go back for a moment, so many memories of this place tied up and tucked away where life in Wyndon couldn’t touch it, couldn’t taint it or scrutinize it. It was his, and his alone, but as he sifted through the dust and old photos in his mind, he wondered if perhaps he had buried them too far down. Hidden them even from himself.

“Lessons in loss,” Raihan said haltingly, and Leon looked up to find Raihan’s eyes on him, encouraging and sweet and _fuck_ how many times was he going to cry today? “You…you would have said there are lessons in loss as well as victory. You said it to me all the time.” He laughed softly, years of repetition in his voice.

Leon stared at his lover, some understanding slotting into place before he could fully realize what exactly he suddenly knew.

“Exactly,” Mustard said with a small smile. “Balance, remember? Between many things. Third and fourth and fifth things, limitless balance and possibility. Victory and loss, light and dark, these are the kind of dualities we trap ourselves with, forgetting that they are entwined to make an endless spectrum. What is victory but the loss of energy and potential movements on the battlefield? What is evening but the dark as it holds the light close?”

Piers took in a sharp breath, and Leon glanced over to see him looking at Mustard with something akin to awe in his expression.

“Ah, but here I am waxing poetic like the old man I am.” And just like that, it felt like a veil had been lifted and he could breathe again, his Master’s words rattling around in his brain, not quite settling in but anchoring him enough that he didn’t feel so adrift as he had these past months. “You three must be tired and famished from the journey. The students will be chasing those Slowpoke for a while yet, and I know Honey has been hard at work making a feast for us all!”

“Chasing…Slowpoke. As in, running. After Slowpoke?” Piers asked, his expression clearly indicating that the world had gone mad.

The devilish look in Mustard’s eyes sent shivers down both Leon and Raihan’s spines, the two of them grinning in response.

“Hm, would you like to give it a try?”

“Hell no, I know a trap when I hear one!”

Mustard burst out laughing and clapped Piers on the back. “Wise lad! Come on then, let’s all go enjoy some Max Soup and perhaps some sandwiches!”

Leon tipped his head back and let the sea breeze caress his skin as Mustard led them all in, talking jovially all the while.

It was so good to be home.


	2. Recenter

All things considered, this was not at all how Piers had expected this trip to go, but it was…nice, he supposed.

 _Just admit you thought you’d be lonely and be done with it_.

He grimaced at himself, but the thought wasn’t far off.

He’d known from the first that this adventure would not include him, not really. Leon hadn’t been sleeping well, had been prone to bouts of depression all too similar to the first, and Raihan had taken Piers aside and told him what he thought Leon needed.

_He needs the Isle, Piers. He needs Mustard and to find who he is without the League. I don’t think he can find that in Wyndon, or even in Hammerlocke._

There was reverence in both their voices whenever they spoke of their time here, and Piers had been more than a little surprised they had chosen to bring him along. He’d thought this place would be everything he generally loathed. Quiet, disciplined, a healthy respect for authority, _outdoor activity_.

…Raihan and Leon leaving him alone because he hadn’t been with them here, didn’t know what it meant to them, couldn’t share old stories and memories of the fields or caves or the time Raihan had saved the other students from a Dynamaxed Vespiqueen.

The latter, he supposed, was true enough. He stayed behind more often than not, mostly content to let the two of them spend time healing together, battling and enjoying themselves. But the rest of it, well…

Fuck, he was going to end up a model citizen at this rate. He was already more than half in love with this place and the family that lived here.

“Here,” Mustard’s voice broke through his musings, holding a cup of soothing tea out to him. He took it gratefully. “It should help you sleep.”

“Fairly sure nothin’ short of a blow to the head could get my eyes to close before the wee hours,” he replied with a grin.

“Don’t tell my darling wife, but I rather feel the same,” Mustard confided cheekily.

If nothing else, Piers was starting to understand why his partners adored this man so much.

“Thank you, though,” he said after he had sipped the warm drink, savoring it as its comfort spread through his body. “M’not used to not havin’ to make my own tea all the time. It’s nice.”

“Honey would agree with you. She hardly lets anyone step into her kitchen, but every so often I’m allowed to make her something. My cooking might leave something to be desired but tea? That I can do.”

Piers leaned his head on his hand and smiled. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so in love as you two are.”

Mustard was silent for a long while as he gave the singer an assessing look.

“Not even with how much the three of you love each other?” He asked eventually.

Piers’ hand dropped back to the table and he immediately looked away, his heart palpitating hard in his chest.

“Didn’t know they’d said anythin’…”

“They didn’t. Nor did they have to. The three of you look at each other like the world comes into focus when you’re together,” the Dojo master said, and Piers looked up hesitantly.

“You think that’s a good thing…” Piers murmured, and it wasn’t a question, per-se, but he was grateful when Mustard answered it anyways.

“Very much so. I always had a feeling Leon and Raihan would sort themselves out one day, but you are a very pleasant surprise. I couldn’t ask for a better partner to those lads.”

“You hardly know me,” Piers said, startled.

Mustard tapped the side of his nose and smiled. “Ah, but you spent nearly three hours yesterday listening to Hyde talk about his latest invention. He told me all about it. I could listen to my son all day, he’s knowledgeable beyond his years and is capable of speaking on many different subjects. But few others can do the same. They find him tedious or annoying, or are threatened by the idea of one so young being that intelligent. He is lonely more often than not because of it.”

“My sister is the same way. Whip smart and unapologetic about it. Could listen to her talk about anythin’. And I liked talkin’ to your son. I was lost through half of it, but so long as he knew what he was talkin’ about, didn’t really matter.”

“And _that’s_ how I know you’re good for those boys. You’ve only been here a few days, often left to your own devices, and you’ve chosen to spend that time being good to my family. There’s no quicker way to my heart,” Mustard said gently and Piers ducked his head in embarrassment.

“Kind of the other way around, though. I know Rai and Lee need their time here together, I really do. I _want_ that for them. I just…get lonely without them. They come back exhausted and fall right to sleep and it’s been…it’s been really nice bein’ able to come out here and talk to you and Honey. Fuck, I don’t know why I’m even tellin’ you this.”

“Does it feel safe to do so?”

Piers kind of wished he could stay here forever.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Yeah, it really does.”

“Then know that it is my privilege to listen. I enjoy our talks! Especially concerning music. Raihan gave me one of your albums to listen to, and I found it riveting.”

“He did _not_ ,” Piers groaned, burying his head in his arms, blushing to the tips of his ears. “That absolute smarmy git, I swear to—”

“Your lyrics are some of the most moving I’ve ever heard.”

Piers paused mid-rant, head shooting up and raising an incredulous brow. “You takin’ the piss?”

“Not at all,” Mustard said, standing up and moving over to one of the shelves. He took a journal down and showed Piers the most recent pages. There, among other musings on darkness, were his lyrics.

“What…” Piers swallowed hard. “What is this?”

“This is what I’ve been trying to describe for more decades than you have been alive. And your lyrics are the closest that words have ever felt to what I try to teach at the Tower of Darkness.”

“The what?”

“There are two towers here, as I’m sure you already know. One teaches the ways of water. The other teaches the lesser known ways of dark types.”

“You’re havin’ me on,” Piers said shakily.

“I assure you I’m not,” Mustard said sadly. “Take a stroll with me? If you’re not too tired, I’d like to show you.”

Piers stood quickly to his feet, his heart racing. There was no way, but he wanted it to be true more than anything. “I—I don’t…” _Not good_ , he thought frantically. _Not now, I need to see_ —

“Breathe with me, lad,” the Dojo master said, and Piers couldn’t help but match his breathing to the other’s, too bewildered to be angry at what he’d always heard as ‘calm down, you’re making a scene.’ Somehow, it didn’t feel like that at all here.

“There we are. Let me get something we will need, and we’ll be on our way.”

Piers nodded, mind racing as Mustard left the room. A tower. A whole bloody tower devoted to dark types? And Rose had to have known about it when he’d sent Leon to train here. What made this place different from Spikemuth, then? Why had his city been left to rot over his decision to keep their dark type legacy and not have a power spot? Did the tower have a power spot? If not, why—

Something brushed against his leg, and he startled, looking down with wide eyes at a…

Was that a Pokémon?

It was small, about the size of a human child, a small Bewear plush type look to it, but plainer than the pink and brown colorations typical of a Bewear. He had never seen a Pokémon like this before. His hand instantly went to his Rotom, scanning the creature and waiting for the results with baited breath.

 _Kubfu_. Rotom said. _The Wushu Pokémon. Kubfu trains hard to perfect its moves._ _If Kubfu pulls the long white hair on its head, its fighting spirit heightens and power wells up from the depths of its belly. The moves it masters will determine which form it takes when it evolves._

A fighting type? It made sense for the Dojo, but he had never heard Bea talk about anything like this before. Was it indigenous to just the Isle? Or perhaps…

The Kubfu touched his leg again, looking up with confused eyes and lifted its arms up to him. He immediately bent down to pick it up, an ingrained habit at this point, settling it against him like he would do for a Toxel, or Marnie as a toddler, and it rumbled in contentment.

“Sweet beastie,” he murmured to it, rubbing behind its ears. “Never seen anythin’ like you, where’d you come from, hm?”

“I thought so.” Mustard’s voice came from the doorway, an inscrutable expression on his face.

“What kind of Pokémon is this? It’s so unique, is it a regional variant?”

“No,” he replied. “It is native to the Isle. As far we know, there are only ever two at a time.”

Piers’ jaw dropped. “Two! You mean to tell me this fuzzball is a legendary?”

Mustard laughed and nodded. “As we surmise, though of course there’s always room for new information. From what we have been able to research in past duos, they evolve only through training at the towers, and their secondary type is dependent upon which tower they are trained in. So the options are the water type and the dark type.”

Piers stared at the happy bundle of fur in his arms, taking the new information in.

“Come along, let me show you the tower. You’ll see what I mean.”

As they made their way outside, they walked along the paths and Piers’ expression of wonder matched that of the Kubfu. He hadn’t seen much of the Isle, his skin too prone to burning to do this in the daylight. Perhaps he should go out at night more often so he could do some exploring of his own. He could see lanterns in the distance, wondered what they might be for.

“This Kubfu has seen very little of the Isle,” Mustard explained as they walked. “She is extremely wary of people, even my students. Leon and Raihan will each receive one of the two, but I’ve been worried that she won’t take well to them despite them both being the most capable trainers I have ever come across. I have seen how well you have trained your own, and how my students’ Pokémon tend to gravitate towards you, and hoped she might do the same. This Kubfu has been far too lonely, and she needs a friend, one who can handle her unique needs. Which of the lads do you think I should give her to?”

Piers thought about it for a long while, the silence pleasant as they drew closer to a building he could see looming at the top of a hill, the stairs leading to the doors. He heaved a resigned sigh and started to climb them.

“Either of them,” he finally said. “They’re both uniquely suited to work with Pokémon that need extra attention. Raihan can manage even the most unruly of dragons, but he’s equally as good at handlin’ the ones who get bullied about by their nestmates, encouragin’ them until they can stand on their own without his help. And if you’ve ever seen Leon with a Sobble, you’ll know exactly why he would do perfectly with this Kubfu. I’d never met a Sobble that didn’t excessively cry well beyond its normal self-care routine until I met Leon’s. And I’d certainly never seen one _smile_.”

Mustard chuckled and nodded. “That’s encouraging to hear, I am glad that no matter who I give Kubfu to, she will be well cared for. I would expect nothing less from those two, but it is heartening to hear nonetheless.”

“Maybe let the two Kubfu decide? When I help adopt out Zigzagoons, I usually have the trainer come sit in a room with them all and see who ends up bein’ a good match. Sometimes it means a few of them take longer to find a home, but even the difficult ones tend to end up in homes that mesh well with them,” he said, thinking of the joy on a trainer’s face when they found a Zigzagoon that had stars in its eyes just for them.

“I think that’s an excellent idea. Ah, we’re nearly there.”

When they arrived at the doors, Piers felt something inside the tower call to a place behind his ribs. The sensation was familiar, though he had never felt it outside Spikemuth.

 _Kindred spirit_ , it called. _Family_. _Void child, come home, come see._

Raihan had once described his own calling as drums under the earth’s crust, a low thrum like the steady rumble of thunder as lightning prepared to touch the mountains. Leon’s was the scream of the forgotten past and a quiet, hopeful note that Piers had tried and failed to replicate for him time and time again. Not of this world, but the next over and the next beyond.

Piers’ was the sensation of deep emptiness and utter fulfillment, back and forth, back and forth, a cycle of wax and wane punctuated by the in-between of the here and now. Non-linear, timeless, and eternal.

He suddenly realized his hand was pressed against the door, Mustard’s eyes knowing and gentle on him as he squeezed the singer’s shoulder and moved to unlock the bolts and lead them inside. Kubfu’s eyes took in everything, squirming a bit until Piers set her down, the Pokémon ambling over to look around the room with curiosity.

He thought of Leon as he tipped his head back to let the silence have its say for a moment, of the way he’d buried his fingers in the earth to anchor himself so he wouldn’t be lost to a kinder, more naïve past. One that was a lie. He thought of the way Raihan would lean his forehead against the ancient walls of the caverns beneath Hammerlocke and listen to something only he could hear until he forced himself to step back, to resurface and keep moving.

He gave the silence another minute, and another, and a moment more before he yelled as loud as he possibly could, chasing the quiet away. The darkness was forever, it could make room for their noise while they yet lived.

He screamed until a smaller voice joined him, the Kubfu’s mouth open on a roar that would have been fierce were it not for it never having made such a sound before. Nonetheless, it mimicked him, matching him sound for sound until his yells turned to laughter, the singer sinking to his knees to hug the little creature close when it started trying to match him in that as well.

“That’s exactly right,” he murmured to it, and it trilled happily at him, its paws patting the sides of his face gleefully. “Give the dark somethin’ to do. Somethin’ to echo. Somethin’ to empower.”

He looked to the Dojo master, who was leaning back against a wall, a smile on his face and his eyes closed. Piers came to sit beside him, the silence his own now, comfortable and satisfying.

“I love this place,” he finally said. “Would be better if I could get a drink after yellin’ like that though. Fuck, gonna tell my sister we’re swappin’ flats for a bit when we get back. I miss my city.”

Mustard smirked, reaching into his sleeve to pull out a flask and silently pass it to the singer.

“You mad, glorious bastard,” Piers breathed as he took it and raised it in a toast, keeping Kubfu from swiping it. He took a swig and nearly choked at how strong it was. “You are absolute aces, you know that?”

“Who, little old me?” Mustard chuckled.

“Thank you for showin’ me this place. Knowin’ that it exists…I think that’s what I need to keep helpin’ Spikemuth get back on its feet. Knowin’ someone gets it.”

“And thank you for coming with me tonight. You all teach me as much as the reverse is true,” Mustard said, pride and affection in his voice. “We can return here whenever you like, consider it open to you whenever you need it.”

As they walked back to the Dojo, Piers hummed quietly, Kubfu asleep in his arms and Mustard pointing out other landmarks and histories along the way. They parted in the hallway, wishing each other pleasant dreams, and Piers couldn’t bring himself to mind the prospect of an early morning when his heart felt this settled.

He tried to crawl into bed without waking his lovers, but they blinked sleepily at him, Raihan mumbling to ask if he was alright, if he needed anything.

“No, love,” he said, shifting them all closer together and wrapping his arms around the dragon trainer, kissing the back of his neck and already halfway to sleep.

“Got everythin’ I need right here.”


	3. Reclaim

Raihan couldn’t remember when he’d last felt so utterly free from outside expectation as he did here and now. Not even the first time he’d been here.

_Especially_ not the first time he’d been here.

Young and stupid and desperate to show Rose that he could beat Leon, that he was worthy of his city’s gym and legacy as many of his forebearers had been.

_You’re trying so hard to be someone else, why not turn that energy towards being you, dear boy?_

It was one of Mustard’s lessons that he still repeated to himself sometimes, still used in some of his loss selfies as a caption. People often thought he was being fake-deep or vapid or whatever else they might assume, but it didn’t matter to him.

They were words he lived by and right now they felt more resonant and fulfilled than they ever had before.

Duraludon collapsed to the ground, and the impact was nothing compared to when it was his Gigantamaxed form toppling down. Normally he had to take a moment to compose himself, to plaster on the smile for the reporters and pretend like it didn’t kill him just a little bit that he would likely never close the gap between his skill and Leon’s.

Here, though…

He charged right at Leon, sweeping him up and spinning him around as they both shouted excitedly over each other, Leon’s hands talking right along with them as he laughed and waved them wildly and ran his thumbs over Raihan’s cheeks until they both slowed down enough to take a breath.

“Absolutely brilliant,” Raihan crowed, putting Leon down but not releasing him just yet. “You complete mad lad, going right through the sandstorm like that! She could have gone down from all that damage!”

“You’d have won otherwise, had to take the risk,” Leon said breathlessly, moving his hands over Raihan’s shoulders to help brush away some of the grit. “You’re getting so much closer, I actually thought I was going to lose this time.”

“Glad I didn’t,” Raihan laughed, swaying them side to side and basking in the way Leon gripped him just as tightly. “Unofficial match outside the pitch with no witnesses? No one would believe me.”

Leon cackled and closed what little distance remained to kiss him soundly. Raihan’s heart was fit to burst, he loved this man so very, very much.

“Ugh, we need to rinse off, I feel like we’re two oversized pieces of sandpaper right now,” Raihan griped.

“Sandstorm while on a beach will do that.”

“Yeah, completely different feeling when it’s real sand.”

Leon blinked. “As opposed to when it’s the arena and it’s…fake sand?”

“Oh c’mon mate, you know what I mean! The sand that comes off of Pokémon is a lot softer, finer than what you’ll find in a desert or a beach. It’s why it doesn’t do as much damage as when it’s in the wild and…why are you looking at me like that?”

Leon smirked and took his arm, leading them off towards one of the caves, though Raihan was quite sure they should be going in the other direction for that. He casually course-corrected them and Leon sent him a knowing look.

“You are _such_ a nerd.”

“Oi! Pot, meet kettle!”

“I can’t go at length about different types of _sand_.”

“I distinctly remember you going on about the different properties of ghostly beings with Alistair for nearly an hour at that charity event last year!”

“Fine, fine,” Leon giggled, holding his hands up in surrender as they found a sequestered spot in the cave that didn’t have any curious Pokémon milling about. He tossed a heated look over his shoulder as he started to strip off his sandy clothing and run his fingers through the water, checking the temperature. “We’re both nerds and I find you unbearably attractive for it.”

Raihan drew in close, letting Leon push his shirt up and off him before doing the same to his shorts. “Unbearably attractive, huh?” He asked, voice low when Leon looked up at him, his breath coming in quick little pants against his neck.

“Mhm,” he agreed, walking them backwards into the cool water, the feeling of it soothing on their overheated skin. “Love how hard you make me work to keep up with how much you know. Always have.”

“Back at you,” Raihan murmured, admiring the way the water highlighted how strong Leon’s body was, how it darkened his hair when he ducked under the surface for just a moment. He leaned against the bank of the stream, pulling Leon to sit between his legs back to front so he could run his fingers through the soft strands, and Leon practically purred, laying his head back against Raihan’s shoulder and closing his eyes.

When his hair was as grit free as it would get without a proper shower, he moved down to touch the rest of Leon, his hands traveling in slow circuits over his arms, his wrists, cupping and kneading at his chest while he kissed and bit at the side of his neck until Leon was squirming against him. Further down to feel the tremble under the skin and muscle of his stomach, spreading soft thighs wide and trailing a finger down the length of him, rubbing lightly at the head when Leon made a strangled sound of pleasure.

“I’m already open,” Leon gasped when Raihan closed his fist around Leon’s cock and rutted against the small of his back. “Fingered myself in the shower this morning, was hoping you’d come join me.”

Fuck, but that was an image. Leon in the cramped stall, biting his wrist to stay quiet so he wouldn’t wake him or Piers, three fingers deep and hoping someone would have their way with him until he was coming against the shower tiles.

“Do you know how many times I imagined that the first time we trained here?”

Leon jolted hard at the words, squeezing his eyes shut when Raihan slipped his fingers into him, his hole clenching around them so beautifully as he made sure he was loose enough to take him. He loved fucking Leon like this, when his beloved was needy and pushing back against him to try and get what he wanted.

“Would come back angry and tired and wanting you even as I also wanted to wipe that smug look from your face. Too young and stupid to know what it all meant and why. And then as it went on and we got to know each other and became friends, I’d feel so guilty thinking about you that way. Took forever to figure out that it was fine, that I was allowed to wish you felt the same.”

“I did,” Leon whispered, mouth going slack when Raihan began to push into him. He was so tight, so perfectly made for him as much as the reverse was true. “Didn’t know what it was until later, when I was already heartbroken, thinking you and Piers being together was the end of everything I’d hoped for.”

“Lee.” He tightened his arms around his lover and set a slow, easy pace to match the quiet ebb and flow of the water.

“Do you remember when we were at that all-League meeting? Maybe six or seven months before Piers invited me in? You two caught eyes over the table and I’d never felt tension like that. It was like watching a vision play out, the way you undressed each other without ever even moving. Thought I was losing my mind, seeing things because I was jealous, and then you sighed like you’d just had the best sex of your life and you two walked out with your hands brushing.”

Raihan remembered. After Piers had started seeing his therapist and taking charge of his mental well-being, things had started changing in the best ways. They began communicating better, Piers started pursuing him back, the two of them learning how to be good for each other beyond just love. Piers had always said it took more than that, so they learned exactly what it took. It evolved into something absolutely extraordinary, the marrow of it seeping into every part of their lives.

He’d looked across that table and felt like his soul was reaching for Piers, only now, Piers knew how to reach back. He’d stared at his lover and let everything show on his face, every vulnerability, and the singer did the same. It had been intense, the way he felt like Piers was laying him out on the boardroom table, looking at and touching every part of him in that quiet, reverent way of his. His mind was alight with pleasure while his body stayed firmly in check, something he hadn’t known was possible before he and Piers had started exploring kink together. He’d walked out of that room feeling like he’d taken Piers right there despite them never touching once, basking in the afterglow as they made their way to the restaurant everyone would be meeting at after.

He had been hurt and confused when Leon didn’t join them after promising he would.

“I stayed at the table long after everyone else was gone, trying not to cry. Didn’t know who I was more jealous of in that moment.” Leon said, and Raihan needed to look at his face more than anything. He lifted him of his cock and Leon whined in frustration for a moment before he realized what Raihan wanted, shifting so they were facing each other, their mouths brushing gently.

Leon whimpered into their kiss when Raihan slid back in.

“Is it the same now? But with losing the Championship?”

“A little bit,” Leon admitted, eyes serious and sad, and Raihan wished he could bare his teeth at everything that made Leon feel like this. “I feel like I have nothing to give either of you, even though I know it’s not true and Piers would have _words_ about it. You two know who you are, know what you want and where you’re going, at least in a general sense.”

“And you feel like you don’t.”

“I don’t think I even know how to begin finding out.”

Raihan leaned back, suddenly realizing they had stopped moving. It felt nice just being this close.

“You’ve been talking a lot about a Battle Tower,” he hedged, and Leon nodded. “Tell me more about that?”

“I don’t want to stop battling,” Leon said. “The best part of being Champion was getting to go all out, of being able to help other trainers do the same. I could never be a gym leader, not like you, or like Nessa and Milo or any of the others. There are so many rules, so many handicaps in place because that’s how it’s supposed to work. Let the ones with potential and the ability to grow keep moving on so they can get stronger, more confident in their strategy and abilities. Otherwise almost no one would ever make it past any of you. It’s incredible, the amount of skill and nuance that takes, and I have none of it. A Battle Tower feels like a good way to let everyone not hold back, to put us all on a slightly more equal footing and _really_ testing what they’ve learned. Like when we all battle each other, but with even more of Galar than before, if they want it.”

Raihan smiled at how vibrant Leon looked as he thought about ways to bring his love of Pokémon and battling to more and more of the region.

“But even that will be temporary,” Leon said, face falling. “I can’t maintain it forever, I’ll burn out too quickly with that many all out matches. And I still won’t be any closer to knowing what I want to do afterwards.”

“Forever?” Raihan asked, and suddenly it made sense, the problem so much more apparent. “Wait, do you think I’m going to be a gym leader forever? That Piers is never going to want to do anything but music again?”

“Hm? No, of course not, you’ve both talked about other ideas, plans for when you need something new.”

“Then why are you holding yourself to an entirely different standard? Why should something being temporary make it any less worthwhile in the meantime?”

Leon’s eyes went wide, and Raihan nearly laughed at how shocked he looked.

“The dualities we trap ourselves with…” he muttered to himself. “ _Oh_!”

“An endless spectrum,” Raihan added with a grin. “Limitless balance and possibility.”

“That’s what it is,” Leon breathed. “ _That’s_ what you know. You learned that the first time around. You’ve known what that meant since the beginning!”

“Saw you start to see it yesterday, it was a good look on you,” Raihan said softly, kissing the other’s neck, over his pulse. “Whether I win or lose, whether _you_ win or lose, it doesn’t change how much I love you, because there is an infinite amount of space to do all of those things. They don’t get it on the mainland, why I’m so comfortable with losing to you, even if my first reaction is to rail against it. I don’t know that they ever will, but that’s okay. They don’t get to see how stunning you are when you win, how incredible you really are to have had the streak that you did. Losing to you is victory in and of itself because I get to be near you, learn from you, celebrate with you. And if one day I do manage to beat you, they won’t know how close I’ll hold you after. That I’ll be just as happy in that moment as I was a little while ago watching you do your thing. I meant it when I said I’d be your rival forever. That hasn’t changed since I told you that.”

Leon’s eyes spilled over before he quickly put a stop to any further tears and he let out a frustrated huff, lightly tapping his fist against Raihan’s chest.

“That is…so unbelievably sappy and I will never let you live it down.” A kiss to his cheekbone. “I feel the same. You teach me so much, and most of who I am is wrapped up in how we’ve grown together.”

He suddenly looked down and seemed to realize their bodies were still connected.

“Arceus, Raihan…”

The dragon trainer laughed, thrusting up hard, just once, to make Leon moan and grip his shoulders.

“Ah, back to thinking with the other head, are we?”

Leon glared at him and lifted up before he slammed himself back down, triumphant smirk on his face when Raihan growled and gave in, starting to move his hips in earnest, a very different cadence from the one before. Leon threw his head back and let him take over from there, and Raihan made it his personal mission to mark up as much of his wet skin as possible before they were through.

The harsh breathing and the sound of their bodies moving together in the water echoed through the cave, an ongoing loop of their pleasure. It might have gone on forever, with how endless this place was.

“Ah!” Leon cried out, fists wrapped tightly in his locs when Raihan turned them so Leon was the one against the bank, using his own grip on the natural rock-laden sides to drive into Leon over and over, the other wrapping his legs around his waist to keep him locked there. His golden eyes were feverish and heavy-lidded as they went back and forth between looking into his own and the rippling, ever-changing look of them taking their pleasure beneath the surface. “Rai— _nnh_! Please!”

He thrust in once more, twice, and again, the water aiding the weightlessness he felt. When they came, it was together, Raihan’s teeth on Leon’s bottom lip and the former Champion’s hands digging bruises into Raihan’s sides, both of them overwhelmed and keeping close to each other as Raihan spilled inside Leon. He tangled his hands in the other’s hair, tugging him down to tuck his face against Raihan’s neck, each of them a bit shaky while they waited for the aftershocks to fade into a warm glow.

He wanted to keep existing here, would willingly give whatever was asked of him if they could stay just like this, but it was time to return. He thought of Piers, so patient and understanding of how much they’d needed this, and ached to be at the Dojo for the first time since they’d set out.

Leon made a sound of contentment when Raihan eventually pulled out and lifted him to sit on the edge of the bank before hoisting himself up as well. He caught the other up in a deep kiss before he stood, grinning down at Leon’s dazed expression.

“C’mon, babe, need to get back to see if anyone managed to find the Max Mushrooms. They’ll be heading back soon, and I’ve worked up an appetite.”

Leon grinned and let Raihan help him up, wrapping an arm around the taller man’s waist. “Me too. What do you think, taxi or walk?”

“Walking sounds good to me. Want to soak up as much of this place as we can before we hit the towers.”

“Alright.”

They tugged on their clothes after shaking them out as much as they could, hand in hand as they started back towards the Dojo.

“Hey Rai?”

“Mm?”

“Do you…” Leon paused, biting his lip and looking away guiltily. “Do you think maybe we could stay in tonight? I know we’d planned on getting just a bit more training in, but I miss Piers and I can’t help but feel like we invited him here just to abandon him.”

Raihan nodded, squeezing his hand. “I’d love that. He and I both agreed that this would be whatever you needed, whatever felt natural for you. Whatever you want is good with us.”

Leon turned his face into the other’s chest and took in a shaky breath. “I love you both so much.”

“Feeling’s mutual,” Raihan said, giggling at Leon’s efforts to walk and try to kiss him at the same time.

/////

They came back to a raucous round of greetings from everyone at the Dojo, Piers with an old acoustic guitar in hand that someone had found in storage and the students in groups surrounding him, hard at work learning their parts of a song they wanted to sing for Master Mustard.

“Welcome back!” Many of them shouted together and Piers grinned, setting down the instrument and walking over to greet them both with a peck on their cheeks.

“You’re back early today.”

“Wanted to spend time with you,” Leon said, giving him a more solid kiss, Raihan cackling when it was greeted with a chorus of ‘eeeeeeew’ and gagging from the younger students.

“You gonna join us, then?” Piers asked cheekily. “We’re in the middle of learnin’ ‘Sending Cheers’ if you want in.”

“I’m surprised you don’t choke upon saying the song title alone,” Raihan teased, and Piers gave him a discreet two fingered salute. “Your one cheesy pop track? Just admit it, Piers, you’re _such_ a softie for kids.”

“Can’t deny it, they’re a sweet lot of bairns. M’not here to shame their music tastes.” He grimaced. “Even if it’s really, really bad. I’m so glad I was able to re-work that one into a rock song, but someone here caught wind of the original and now apparently nothin’ else will do.”

“I am not missing this for the world.”

Piers rolled his eyes and went back over to sit on the stairs of the main room. “Alright, everyone got their parts down?”

There was general agreement from the room and someone went to go fetch Mustard and Honey from where they had been exiled while everyone worked on the song.

It was, in reality, absolutely atrocious, with the majority of the room more than a little tone-deaf and almost everyone else stumbling over the lyrics, but Mustard looked beyond proud as he held his wife’s hand and nodded along to the tune, joining in the laughter when Piers threatened Raihan mid-song with bodily harm if he made one more move towards his Rotom phone.

When the entertainment and dinner was over, they shooed Honey away from the dishes, the three of them working through the pile in comfortable silence for a bit.

“Would it be alright if I join you two when you train tonight?” Piers asked after a while, and Raihan nearly dropped the dish back into the sink.

“Huh?”

“Oh, but—”

Raihan and Leon both stared at each other, eyes wide at the offer. They hadn’t been planning on going back out, but did Piers want to? If so, Raihan supposed they could get some more training in before tomorrow, but—

“I see,” Piers said quietly, eyes downcast, and Raihan immediately felt wrong-footed. “Nevermind, then. Are you plannin’ on bein’ out late?”

“We weren’t planning on being out at all,” Leon said, his mouth a grim line. Raihan nodded, waiting for the recognition to dawn before he took Piers’ hand in his.

“Oh…” Piers murmured. “Uh, so you’ll…”

“We wanted to be here with you,” Raihan said, his chest hurting at the hesitance before he realized what day it was.

It had been five days, hadn’t it…

And he suddenly realized neither he nor Leon could say what Piers had done in that time. At all.

“Fuck,” he breathed, and he watched Leon bury his face in his hands before running them agitatedly through his hair.

“Oh, absolutely not!” Piers burst out when he realized what they were on about, brandishing a wet soup spoon at them both. “I don’t want one second of guilt from either of you.”

“Five days,” Raihan hissed, crossing his arms against how horrible it made him feel. He had barely noticed, caught up in how timeless this place was, drifting through it joyfully with Leon like they had before, and he hadn’t stopped to…

It was one thing that they had agreed on whatever Leon needed, but that didn’t mean they should have left Piers in a strange place he hadn’t been to before for this long.

“Piers—"

“I could have left the Dojo to come find you at any time, sunburn be damned! I made choices here, too,” Piers said firmly. “We agreed, Raihan. Anythin’ Leon wanted, anythin’ he needed. And I’m okay, look at me. Do I look like I’ve been witherin’ away with pining?”

He waited until Leon turned back around, his golden eyes full of regret.

“I did miss you both, and I know you didn’t mean to go this long without really seein’ me. But I’m glad that you did. I’m not the one who can help you through this, Lee. Not like Rai can, and that’s alright. I made peace with that after we sorted ourselves out the first round. Right now, I’m here for whatever support you may need. And it’s not like I’ve been alone.” He gave them a wide, genuine smile, and Raihan felt his own shoulders relax at the sight of it. That he felt comfortable enough to let himself be seen like that here was…

“I get why you two love this place,” Piers murmured, stepping forward to take their hands. “Mustard and his family have been amazin’. He took me to the Tower of Darkness, it was…fuck, it was incredible. I can’t wait to see what you two end up doin’ there, if you choose it.”

“You saw one of the towers?” Leon asked in a hushed whisper.

“Yeah, I…” He kissed their palms and Raihan pulled them both close, the three of them standing there holding each other until Piers spoke again. “It was everythin’ I didn’t know I needed, so don’t you dare apologize for takin’ what _you_ needed, alright?”

“Okay,” Leon murmured, and drew back to smile at Raihan. “And you’re right, I did need Rai’s help on this one. I haven’t felt this centered since I lost, and I think I know how to move forward now.” He cradled Piers’ face in his hands, leaning their foreheads together. “But I need you just as badly.”

“I love you both so fuckin’ much,” Piers said, and Raihan pressed a kiss to the top of his head, voicing his own love back. “C’mon, let’s finish up here and go to bed early if we aren’t goin’ back out. I want to hold you.”

“We should probably shower first, had something of a sand bath earlier,” Raihan snickered, and Piers grinned at him.

“Go clean up then, I’ll wait for you in the room.”

/////

Raihan keened, the sound stifled by the pillow. The walls were too thin here, his body overheated and crying out for release as Piers licked into him again, his pleased hum against where Raihan was ready and loose for him sending shiver after shiver down his spine.

Leon was beside him, stroking his locs with one hand while the other moved lazily in an out of himself, more to feel Piers’ come inside him than to work himself back up again.

He felt strung out and oversensitive from the way Piers’ hair felt against the backs of his thighs as he spread them further to let Piers work his tongue inside him over and over again, as deep as he could go before he’d pull back to press wet, lewd kisses to his rim. His hand on Raihan’s cock had him dripping against the sheets, desperate to come but not wanting to until Piers was inside him.

He reached back to tug at Piers’ hair, making the singer moan quietly and slowly draw back, panting.

“Please, babe,” he whispered. “Inside me, need you filling me up.”

Piers trailed kisses up his back and Raihan watched Leon’s eyes drift down to where he could feel Piers’ cock slide between his cheeks, teasing him every time it caught against him.

“Please, _please_ ,” he begged, knowing it was too muffled as he bit the soft material of the pillow hard, trying not to cry out when Piers finally draped himself over Raihan’s back and started to push into him. He reached out to grip Leon’s hand in his, turning his head to watch Leon bite his lip and whimper when Piers was fully sheathed, leaning his forehead against Raihan’s shoulder as he panted from how tight the other was around his cock.

He kissed the back of his neck when he’d caught his breath. “Love you, Rai.”

Raihan looked over his shoulder to watch Piers sweep his hair back over his shoulder, his expression adoring as he started to move, gripping Raihan’s hips to guide him back, allowing Raihan to hang his head low and just _feel_. He didn’t have to do anything, could let himself be lost in how deep Piers was in him, how each thrust sent his thoughts scattering from how good it felt.

He wasn’t aware of the sounds spilling from his mouth until Piers pressed his fingers against Raihan’s lips in reminder. He licked them, catching one in his mouth, and Piers obliged him, pushing two in to push down on his tongue, the feeling akin to fucking his throat when he choked and moaned around them.

“Gotta stay quiet, love, or I’ll have to stop,” Piers said, voice low enough that he could feel it between their skin.

He nodded, letting Piers take him at both ends, the only sounds the slickness of Piers inside him and the three of their harsh breaths, muffled against skin and pillow and the bite of a lip. His orgasm crept up on him, lost as he was in the sensations, and he barely had any time to shove his face back against the mattress before he was coming hard into Piers’ hand, the singer working him through it until he was trembling from trying to keep himself on hands and knees.

Piers eased him down and kissed his temple, and Raihan murmured his love while he basked in how warm Piers was against him. He looked over to Leon, who was flushed and hard again, watching the two of them with a smile on his face and no trace of the inner demons that had been haunting him for months.

Piers pulled out of him slowly, still hard, and Raihan tucked his arms under the pillow to gaze at them both.

“Piers?” Leon’s voice was rough with want, and Piers placed a hand against his chest to push him back down against the pillows. “Will you…”

“Anythin’,” Piers said, and Raihan wished he could capture this moment so that anytime Leon doubted his place with them, he could show him the way Piers was looking at him right now.

“Come inside me again,” Leon pleaded, and Piers crawled over him, running his hands over Leon’s chest to tease at his nipples and the bite marks he and Raihan had left on them.

“’Course, Princess. C’mere.”

Leon tangled his fingers in the other’s hair, shivery breaths escaping him as Piers slid back inside him in one solid movement.

Leon wrapped his arms around the singer and brought him down to lie against him, Piers’ movement limited by how tightly he was held, but grinding hard against Leon to repeatedly brush against the place that had Leon fighting desperately to stay quiet.

“Piers—”

Raihan was exhausted, but he kept his eyes open, wanting to see them find their pleasure together. They were so closely entwined, wrapped up in each other and Raihan’s heart was so full, wondering how any of them had managed to live without existing in the shelter of each other.

“Feels good,” Leon whispered. “Feels so good.”

Raihan reached out to touch the side of Leon’s face, the other turning his cheek into it as he opened his mouth on a silent shout when Piers gripped the sheets and thrust into him once more, hard enough to have Leon spilling helplessly between them.

He watched their faces as they shook apart, Piers spiraling over the edge soon after. He came buried in Leon’s body, biting his shoulder to muffle his own shout of completion.

He watched Piers stroke Leon’s hair as they came back down, his eyes too heavy to stay awake much longer. He drifted in and out, Piers eventually moving from the bed to clean up, and he smiled sleepily as Piers took care of Leon before he felt like he blinked and those gentle hands were on him.

“Today wear you out, sweetheart?” He asked softly, and Raihan nodded, humming in contentment when Piers kissed him, the mint of their toothpaste dancing along his tongue.

“Best kind of tired,” he mumbled, and Piers smiled in agreement. The intimacy of it never failed to take his breath away, the way Piers treated the aftermath as equally important as the sex itself.

“Go to sleep, Rai, I’ve got this.”

“Just wanna look at you both a while longer.”

Piers glanced up, something vulnerable and loving in his eyes as he took Raihan’s hand and kissed each finger. “My heart hardly knows what to do when you say things like that.”

“I have some suggestions.”

“Of course you do.”

“Kiss me and tell me you love me,” he said cheekily, closing his eyes.

“I do,” Piers said, leaving kisses along his face before he captured his mouth. “Love you so much.”

He really, _really_ liked whenever those were the last words he heard before sleep claimed him for the night.

His dreams were filled with calm waters, and the three of them sitting on the sandbars before a mighty tower.


	4. Relearn

Leon murmured sleepily and turned his face towards the soft kisses that were being pressed against his cheek.

“C’mon, Sleepin’ Beauty, if I have to be up for this, you have to suffer with me.”

“M’kay,” he mumbled, fully intending to pass right back out before suddenly something heavy dropped onto his stomach and his eyes flew open, all the breath leaving him in one go.

“Wakey, wakey, Lee! Today’s the day we finally take the tower challenge!”

“You are so _mean_ ,” Leon wheezed, grappling at Raihan while the other howled with laughter and kept him from getting the dragon trainer onto his back.

“Arceus fuck,” Piers muttered as he hurriedly scrambled out of the bed. “Was tryin’ to be nice, you two are the worst.”

“You love it!” Raihan crowed from where he was pinning a hissy Leon with limited success.

“I am going to wash my face and do my hair, and you two had better be finished gettin’ ready before me. I did not wake my sleep deprived arse up before the sun so you two could take your sweet time.”

Leon finally managed to buck Raihan off of him and lost all will to complain when Raihan used the opportunity to kiss all over his face. “Rude and mean,” he insisted, burrowing against the other’s chest. “I am so tired, can’t we just put it off till tomorrow?”

“Who are you are what have you done with Lee?”

“More like what did Piers and Raihan do with Lee,” he grumbled, his body sore from battling and getting fucked twice in one day. “Don’t act innocent, it will be your fault when I fail the challenge because I can’t walk up the stairs.”

“I’ll carry you,” Raihan said with a smirk and Leon laughed at the mental image.

“Have you decided which tower you’re going to go for yet?”

Raihan paused, a worried expression on his face. “Not yet, thought I’d know by now but I don’t know enough about what we’re going to be doing to decide.”

“Same here,” Leon admitted, biting his lip and looking towards the bathroom. “I want to ask him about what it was like, to get a feel for what we might face, but is that cheating, in a way? Mus has to know we’d be curious, and I don’t think he’d think of it like that.”

“I think we should wait to see if he clears anything up first. We can always ask Piers on our way there.”

“Agreed.”

“Hope you two are dressed,” Piers’ voice called from the bathroom and Leon and Raihan shot off the bed, hurriedly throwing each other the dojo uniforms they had been given.

They both froze, grinning sheepishly as Piers came out before taking in what he was wearing.

“Piers?” Leon asked, voice hushed.

“This is definitely not my color,” Piers muttered in response, tugging irritably at the belt around his waist. “It’s not fair you two look handsome in everythin’.”

“Are…are you taking the challenge with us?” Raihan breathed, his voice mirroring the hope Leon was suddenly feeling.

“I dunno, seems like it? Mustard handed these to me, but I’m not sure if I’m takin’ the challenge or it’s just respectful or somethin’.”

They all stared at each other for a long while before Leon kept getting dressed. “More and more questions,” he said with a grin. “Classic Mus.”

Raihan and Piers laughed in agreement.

/////

“Oh, don’t you three look a treat,” Honey gushed over them when they came in for breakfast. “I’m so proud of you all, I hope today is full of discoveries for you!”

“Thanks, Honey,” Raihan said as they all shoveled food into their mouths as quickly as they could. “Master Mustard gonna come see us off?”

She giggled and shook her head. “That’s my job today. He’s out training, waiting for you when you’re ready.”

“Hm, so at least one of the things we’ll have to do is battle him,” Leon mused. “Fair enough.”

“Perhaps,” Honey said with a sweet smile on her face. “In the meantime, I am here to deliver something you’ll both need before you start out.”

Piers’ head immediately turned to the door and Leon looked after him curiously before two furry creatures poked their heads around the sides. They got excited when they saw Piers, both running over to him and trying to climb into his lap while he laughed and picked them up.

“Are those Pokémon?” Raihan gasped, Leon’s mouth agape at seeing creatures he had never even heard of before.

Piers passed them his Rotom and they looked over the information on it. “Incredible,” Leon whispered. “This is amazing! So this is why there are two towers, then?”

“It is,” Honey confirmed, her eyes soft as Piers set them both back down. “And they’re yours. The two of you should have gotten the opportunity to raise them long ago, but circumstances were different then.”

Leon felt like he might cry, gripping Raihan’s hand as he shared an excited look with Piers, reaching out to the Kubfu, a grin on his face. “They’re adorable, I can’t believe Mus managed to keep these a secret for this long.”

His expression fell when neither of the Kubfu came towards them, backing up against Piers’ legs.

“Ah, they’re shy,” Raihan said gently. “It’s okay sweet ones, take your time, yeah?”

“Odd, this one is usually pretty outgoin’,” Piers murmured, ruffling the fur of the one on the left. “I was thinkin’ they should choose which of you they want to train with.”

“That’s a good idea.”

They settled back, watching the Kubfu’s eyes dart back and forth between them, their little expressions crumpling in a way that had Leon’s heart beating hard in his chest. Were they afraid? Or did they…not want either of them?

“What’s wrong, loves?” He asked gently. “What’s holding you back?”

They both hugged Piers’ legs at the same time, and Raihan tilted his head.

“You want Piers to train you instead?” He asked.

The Kubfu on the right made a distressed sound and tugged her counterpart away, going to stand by the kitchen sink away from all of them, her body trembling.

“That’s a definite ‘no’ then,” Piers said, rubbing his neck while he stared at them. “Do you two not want to leave at all?”

They both burst into tears at the thought, and Leon wasn’t even conscious of moving before he, Raihan, and Piers were all out of their seats and scooping up the Pokémon to hold between them.

“Oh no, please don’t cry—”

“I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to upset—”

“Not gonna make you do anything you don’t want to—”

The Kubfu gave startled little hiccups, their tears slowing as they were held from all sides. One buried his face in Raihan’s uniform and stopped crying when Piers stroked his fur while the other sniffled against Leon’s arm and let Piers rub her paw pad until she calmed down.

“I think I get it,” Leon said quietly, observing the way they grew more distressed if someone shifted away. “It’s that you don’t want to choose, isn’t it?” The Kubfu looked up at him, hope on their faces. That was it, then. He stroked a finger over their fuzzy cheeks when he caught his lovers’ eyes. “Pokémon can walk outside of their Pokéballs here. We could…we could all train them together.”

“The three of us?” Piers asked, and Leon’s heart clenched at how _right_ that sounded.

“Yeah. Yeah that…fuck, that sounds perfect,” Raihan said reverently. “Sounds balanced.”

Leon grinned when the Kubfu wriggled excitedly between them. “That sly devil! He always knows!”

Piers looked shocked, a slow smile spreading across his face, and Raihan made a pleased sound beside him. They looked up, and Honey wasn’t in the room with them anymore.

“They always trust us to figure it out, don’t they?” Raihan murmured. “Fuck, I missed this place.”

“Oh!” Leon said, clamoring to his feet, staring at the Kubfu in his arms. “The same for the towers, that’s it!”

Piers bit his lip to hide a smile and stood as well.

“We let them choose that too,” Raihan agreed. “They know what they need to find balance.”

“Let’s go then! Anyone up for the Tower of Water?”

The Kubfu hugging Raihan immediately started chittering at them, and they laughed. “Right, then! You first, sweetheart. Does that mean you’ll be choosing the Tower of Darkness?” He asked the other.

She flapped her paws at them, puffing her chest out proudly and patted Piers’ cheeks. The soft, shaky breath the singer took in was something Leon wanted to remember forever.

“We ready?”

They all shouldered their gear and the Kubfu ran out ahead of them, bouncing excitedly when they joined them outside.

“Let’s go!”

/////

“The sun can eat my entire arse,” Piers grumbled for the third time in as many minutes and Leon watched Raihan visibly suppress a smile.

“I feel so much less guilty about leaving him with Mustard,” Leon mock whispered.

Piers threw him an exasperated look and held his hand out for the water bottle. “Told you I made choices. They weren’t all unselfish ones.”

“Piers, c’mere, I have one of those unfolding umbrellas with me. It’ll at least protect your face,” Raihan snickered, and Piers made grabby hands at him, immediately shoving his head under the shade as soon as he had it.

“Fuck,” he sighed happily. “If I don’t get heat stroke, remind me to suck you off for rememberin’ to bring this.”

Raihan choked around his drink, Leon howling with laughter.

“Raihan, quick! Check my pack for the sunblock, I want in on this!”

Piers smirked at them and twirled the umbrella over his head. “Get me out of this with no heat stroke _or_ sunburn and I’ll happily let you both choose what we eat for the next month.”

He and Raihan stopped walking for a second, thinking about that.

“That cheesecake thing you made from the Great Galarian Bakeoff,” Raihan said, tongue darting out to lick his lips.

“Endless fajitas!” Leon said, gripping Raihan’s shoulders.

“Oi! Don’t celebrate till you make good on makin’ sure I don’t keel over!”

“Rai?”

“My pleasure, you get him on the next tower.”

“Wha—” Piers screamed as he was suddenly scooped up in Raihan’s arms and Flygon was released, Raihan jumping onto his back and Leon getting Charizard out, cackling as they both took off, soaring high enough that even his terrible sense of direction wouldn’t be a problem.

“Warn a bloke!” Piers shrieked, slapping behind him at Raihan’s side. “Arceus’ tits, do I have to add heart attack to the list of things to avoid?”

“ _You_ didn’t want to bike.”

Leon looked out over the vastness of the Isle and its waters, letting their voices blur into the wind and the sound of the sea for a while. Charizard had been just a Charmander when he was last here, and suddenly seeing a new perspective of this place had him closing his eyes and breathing in deeply.

“Fallin’ back asleep over there, Princess?” Piers teased.

He smiled, eyes still shut. “Who could, with you two bickering?”

Piers snorted and Leon opened his eyes when he suddenly felt a hand in his. Flygon was right alongside Charizard, the two of them coasting in sync and Piers squeezed his fingers while Raihan leaned his head against his lover’s soft hair.

“Keep your eyes sharp,” Piers said, tilting his head to the ground, and a tall building loomed in the distance below them. “Looks like the tower I saw. M’guessing that’s it.”

When they landed, there was an eerie quiet around them, the sound of waves a relentless backdrop as they stared up at the tower before them.

The Kubfu that had chosen Water quickly ran over to the door, pushing the heavy door open to disappear inside, and Raihan rolled his eyes with a lazy smile at his partners, jogging after him.

“Be right back! Doesn’t look like anyone’s here, we’ll probably have to wait for Mus outside.”

“Sounds good, let us know if he’s there and we’ll come in.”

Raihan went in, calling for the Kubfu and looking around in curiosity. The place was beautiful, old and serene in the exact way the oceans were, with flowing décor and sturdy wood. He ran his fingers over the carved railing, looking towards the top where Kubfu had likely disappeared. At least he’d get a good leg day in.

As he began to climb, the peacefulness of the place started to fade. He frowned and glanced behind him, down to the bottom floor, but nothing had changed. He started his ascent again.

“Hey, buddy, come on back down here, yeah? We’re not supposed to be in here yet.”

_You’re not supposed to be here at all._

He froze, whipping around, seeing…

No one. Nothing.

But he had been so sure—

_Remember that, Raihan. The only reason you’re here is because you have promised that you won’t disappoint me with your results._

_I won’t! Promise._

He instinctively broke out into a sweat, his eyes widening as he recognized the whispers, whose voices they were.

_Now, go and have fun!_

_A fake smile, a fake laugh as Mustard came into view. Every part of him a facade, a false oasis in the desert._

He gritted his teeth, shaking his head and wondering where the hell that had come from. He kept climbing, determined to find Kubfu and get out of there. Maybe the Pokémon wouldn’t mind choosing the other tower. Piers had said he loved that place, and clearly this one wasn’t vibing well with him.

_Running away again? Raihan, we’ve talked about this. Must you lash out like this?_

_Lash out? C’mon Rose, I’m just going to the Wilds for a bit. There are a bunch of new nests that have been popping up all over! This is what Hammerlocke has been working towards! We might finally be on the verge of helping the dragon population back on its—_

_And this has nothing to do with your loss to Leon the other day?_

_His loss to…_

_Not really, sir, no. I mean, of course I’m a little sore over it, but there will be other chances. But my gym duties take precedence, as always, like you said they should._

_Hm, did I say that?_

_So cold, a cheery smile on his face. Raihan took a step back, fiddling with the strap of his backpack._

_You…you did, sir._

_Interesting, though I suppose that’s one way to interpret it, and you can’t be blamed for misunderstanding. Let me make my words clearer, then. When I said I expected you to attend to your gym duties, I didn’t mean that your League work should lag because of them._

_But I train nearly every day! I stay on top of my work as you ask, and these nests need care and attention or they aren’t likely to survive. Leon isn’t going anywhere, I can do more training as soon as I get back in a few days. You won’t even notice I’m gone!_

_Rose raised a brow._

_No. No, I don’t suppose I will._

_His blood ran cold._

_The choice, of course, is yours. Just remember that there are many hopeful and more talented trainers who would give anything to be in your shoes._

“Stop. _Stop_!” Raihan yelled, gripping the sides of his head and trying to find where this was coming from. Everything was echoing, like the inside of a shell, the air oppressive and filling his lungs like seawater.

The nests had been past his help when he’d managed to check them.

Dozens of dragons, lost. And for what?

He started sprinting up the remaining stairs.

_What…what is this?_

_Rose’s eyes were manic as he looked towards the strange egg-shape he could see just past him._

_Nothing that concerns you._

He hadn’t pushed, had walked away.

He should have shoved past Rose, should have looked at what truly lay sleeping beneath his city, should have done a lot of things. He had let Rose make him forget who he was, who he was descended from, what he stood for.

Doomed to failure, to be second best, never good enough to protect the people he—

He reached the top of the stairs, panting wildly as the watery whispers stopped, the sudden absence of them jarring.

Kubfu stood before a long scroll, tilting his head back and forth as he examined it.

“Kubfu, let’s go,” Raihan said desperately. “I shouldn’t be h—”

“You’re exactly where you need to be, my darling boy.”

He stumbled forward a handful of steps and collapsed, Mustard’s grip tight on him as he went down, gentling the fall.

He could hear himself taking in ragged breaths, could feel himself shaking but it was all from a distance, far away where his body could fall apart but he could be safe, not have to deal with it, not have to think about—

“Don’t leave,” Mus said gently, his old hands a comfort on his back. “Stay right here with me.”

Raihan shook his head. He didn’t want to, wanted to go somewhere safe where he was worthy of his city, his fans, his partners.

“It’s alright, Raihan, I’m not going to make you face this alone. I’m going to be here every step of the way. Will you trust me to guide you through this?”

Raihan didn’t know how long they stayed there, but it must have been awhile because when he was finally able to nod, Kubfu had wormed his way into his arms between them, rumbling contentedly.

“Good. Come on, let’s get ourselves off the floor. My old joints can’t handle it for long.”

“You’re literally fitter than Leon and I combined,” Raihan muttered, and Mustard gave a hearty laugh.

“Nonsense, lad!” When they stood, the older man clapped him on the shoulder and moved to stand near the scroll.

“Raihan,” he called when the dragon trainer’s eyes started to lower, to stare at his shoes. “It will be alright. I promise this.”

How could he promise something like that when it was riding on Raihan’s ability to get through it. He couldn’t rely on anyone else. Even his doubles battles were him and his Pokémon, nothing and no one to interfere. And right now, he was barely able to stand, much less go through whatever the tower challenge might be.

“A stream too clear loses its mystery, its protective properties,” he said, gesturing to the scroll. “We all need some darkness in ourselves. Without it, we have no perspective. The power of water lies in the balance of pluralities. You are a strategist. You know these principles well, but even you are not exempt from hiding truths from yourself, of trying to force yourself into the ‘either-or’ rather than the ‘and’. Water can do many things, be many things, take as many forms as it needs. You know this. You _embody_ this. So tell me…”

_Tell me, Raihan._

No, no, he didn’t want—

“Why do you think you’re not allowed to be angry?”

_Why are you always so angry?_

Raihan screamed, a sound of anguish he didn’t realize he could make, and Kubfu suddenly sprang from his arms, charging for the scroll. His claws ripped through the bottom of it, sending the heavy fabric of it careening over the edge of the stairs before the Pokémon jumped back to him, hackles raised as he awaited his command.

He stared, Kubfu’s eyes meeting his when the other glanced back.

_Do you find it amusing to reflect badly on me?_

_Don’t you think you’re overreacting?_

_You ought to take a lesson from Leon. Your control has been slipping of late._

“I hate him,” he hissed, mind awash with memory after memory of every curt word, every dismissal, every threat. “I _hate_ him.”

“Why?”

“For hurting Leon,” he spat. “He took everything from him, wrung him out and never thanked him for it. Thought it was what he was _owed_ for making Leon into something great. As if that wasn’t what Leon already was.”

_I never said that, Raihan. You’re imagining things, I’m afraid._

“Why else?”

“For hurting Piers,” he growled, and the darkness that welled up in him as he thought about _how many_ ways he had hurt his lover was an untamable force. He screamed again, and Kubfu took another piece of the scroll, the scrap fluttering uselessly against a wall.

_Must you flaunt your relationship with that good-for-nothing boy?_

“Is that all?”

“Isn’t that enough?” He yelled, hands in his hair, tugging angrily at it as he fought to get himself back under control.

“Raihan, you can’t live in false balance if you want to keep them,” Mustard said, and Raihan’s eyes snapped up to his.

“Everything you do, you do for them. You are a reservoir, a deep running well-spring of life, and encouragement, and humor, and joy. It is who you are at your center.”

He paused, and his eyes were so hurt, and Raihan suddenly realized he was…he was grieving for him. For what had been taken from him.

“But even a reservoir will run dry eventually, if it has nothing to refill it. You must _take_ as much as you give. To allow yourself what you need, even when it feels terrifying to ask it of them. They want so badly to give to you, and you are a balance of three. Of pluralities. Each of you has strengths the others do not. And in the ones you have in common, you stand utterly solidified against anything that might think to tear you apart. And there _will_ come a day that you will need to be able to do that for them, while still allowing them to do the same for you. It might be sooner than you think.”

He thought about the feeling of drowning.

It hadn’t been until Rose was gone that he’d started to feel like he could finally breathe again.

“Why are you angry at him, Raihan?”

“For hurting me,” Raihan choked out, angrier than he could ever remember being in his life as tears streamed down his face. “For fucking hurting _me_! For making me think I was crazy, that I didn’t have a right to be angry when he would use us all against each other! For cutting down every moment I spent trying to build myself back up! For calling me worthless! For lying to me all the fucking time! For taking me away from here even though I could have found the towers if they’d let me show Leon! For trying to get me banned across my platforms when they were the one thing keeping me from spiraling out of control! For making me play the heel for a decade and nearly ruining any chance I had with the two men I love most in the world when all I wanted was to be open with them!”

It didn’t feel like he would ever be able to stop.

This time, he didn’t bother making any sound. It had already flowed out of him, the air around him awash with how loud his soul screamed out. He could barely see through his tears, and he watched them fall around Kubfu, watched him blink his small black eyes against them. The Pokémon reached out to catch them in his paws, and he made a little sound of understanding, hugging Raihan’s leg.

Raihan knelt down to hug him back, the soft fur a comfort against his face and hands, until Kubfu stepped back, paws collecting the tears from his face until he turned to face what remained of the scroll. Blue light reminiscent of the color of water began to surge around him, his tiny body trembling from the effort, and Raihan scrambled back in shock as the bright glow of evolution started to emanate from him.

Kubfu grew and grew and grew, and he stared up at it in wonder as he blew past even his own height.

As the light faded, the new beast before him looked back at him, the blue glow solidifying into waves, beads of darkness and light cascading throughout it, and he focused on the scroll, rolling his arms into a movement that summoned a heavy series of rapid fire strikes with arms and legs, sending a flurry of three water blades towards the remains on the wall.

They struck true, the attacks leaving a fine mist in the air that felt like vindication along Raihan’s overheated skin, and the scroll lay in tattered pieces before him, everything finally, finally quiet.

The Pokémon reached down to pick up and scrap of it, coming to sit beside him. He held it out to him, a pleased smile on the former Kubfu’s face as he pushed his giant head against Raihan’s shoulder. The dragon trainer gave a startled, watery laugh and scratched at the other’s neck.

“That was amazing,” he whispered, letting him pat his face with massive paws until it was free of any further tears. “You did all that with these?”

“Incredible what one can accomplish when they are not afraid to feel what the situation calls for,” Mustard said softly, coming over to sit with them as well. “Anger, sadness, happiness, you can feel many things all at once. Don’t stifle one in favor of the others. Use them in order to create change, something new, both in yourself and in the world at large. Let Leon and Piers support you through that. You can trust each other to hold even the most volatile of emotions without it being too much. I have never seen a love so enduring as yours. Take courage in that.”

“Okay,” he murmured into sleek black fur. “I think…I think I can do that.”

“I know you can, lad.”

He stood shakily, helping Mustard up and taking in the new form Kubfu had taken. “What is this one called?”

Mustard smiled and reached out to rub between the beast’s eyes, laughing when his tongue lolled out happily, the expression reminiscent of Piers’ Obstagoon.

“Urshifu.”

It looked up at the name and huffed happily in reply.

“It’s a Pokémon of serenity beyond circumstance,” Mustard said. “Of peace, tranquility, of joy. It learns from the pluralities around it, it watches, and when it is time, it unleashes the full force of its might with unmatched speed. Rather sounds like someone I know and love.”

Raihan sighed gratefully and wrapped his arms around the older man, squeezing hard.

“Thank you.”

“And thank _you_. I’ve never seen Kubfu evolve quite like that. It didn’t need to read the scroll, it trusted you to know the lessons on it already. I look forward to seeing how deep that bond will run.”

They walked down the stairs, and this time the whispers were gentle, rain instead of a storm, the voices of those who loved him and rallied beside him when he’d needed a friend. And then…

_You’ll not take him, Rose._

He paused on the steps, listening hard.

_Not now, not until he’s at least completed his training. The towers can wait, but his well-being cannot._

Honey’s voice?

_You cannot keep him from his duties on the mainland. No amount of training will bring that lad any closer to beating Leon anyways._

_You still don’t get it, do you? So wrapped up in your vision for Galar that you’ve created a false balance for them all._

_Don’t spout that nonsense at me, Honey. I respect Mustard’s work here, but that trite, naïve view of the world—_

_There has never been anything trite about balance._

These were the truths she knew, her endless course between the many things that she was, would become, and would always be. He realized, all at once, that she had trained here, too.

_Rose scoffed and rubbed his hand over his forehead, a placating smile on his face._

_Say what you will, he is needed in Hammerlocke._

_And what about what he needs?_

The moment vanished, and Raihan took a deep breath, looking down to where Mus was waiting for him at the bottom of the tower.

They had known even then what he’d needed. He had completed the training, and it had carried him through even the worst of what Rose and Galar threw at him.

He wouldn’t have survived without it. Or perhaps he would have, at the cost of…

_Oh_.

At the cost of so much of who he was, his sense of self. Like…

“Leon is next, isn’t he?”

Mustard gave him a proud smile.

“I thought it would be Piers’ battle in the Tower of Darkness…”

“Piers understands Darkness better than anything he could learn at the tower,” Mustard said simply.

“It can’t be you then,” Raihan said, the realization dawning slowly, answers he hadn’t known had questions solidifying, and he nearly stumbled down the remaining steps. “He trusts you completely. You’ll be waiting there, but it won’t be you he faces.”

“No, dear boy.” He opened the doors to where Piers was pacing agitatedly back and forth, hands gripping his hair and Leon nowhere in sight.

“I'm afraid it’s going to be you.”


	5. Renew

Leon leapt off of Charizard’s back before she could even fully land, grabbing Kubfu and running towards the tower, the clouds dark and stormy behind them, laden and heavy with water from the sea.

“Mustard!” He yelled, banging on the door and surprised when it opened for him. He ran inside, looking around wildly. It was nearly pitch-black inside, but he could vaguely see the stairs. He took them three at a time, sprinting and praying desperately that he and Piers had been right, that Mustard had come here first and would be able to help them get Raihan out of the Tower of Water.

_The doors had closed, and when Piers had grown worried about how long Raihan had been inside, they’d realized with horror that they could not open them._

_They’d tried everything, but their efforts were fruitless. A scream suddenly pierced the air and Piers had nearly broken his own body trying to get through the door before Leon had grabbed him around the waist and pulled him away._

_“Piers, Piers! It’s no good, we have to think of something else!”_

_“What if it’s too late?” Piers shouted, struggling against him. “I’ll fuckin—”_

_“Mustard!” Leon said urgently. “We need to find him! He’ll be able to get the doors open, will know what’s up there!”_

_“I—I can’t just—”_

_“I’ll go, stay here and see if you can get in. He must be at the other tower, thinking we’d go there first since you’d already been there! We already know that one is safe, and Charizard will make sure I don’t get lost.”_

_“What if he isn’t there?”_

_“He will be.”_

The light was non-existent at the top, and he slowed to feel his way up the last steps. Kubfu wriggled in his arms, and he held her tighter. If he put her down, he’d never find her again.

The dark was so complete that it hummed, a low buzz in his ears that was the closest he had ever heard to the strange note in the back of his skull and in his veins since he was a boy.

“Mustard!” He called again. “Are you there?”

“I am here,” Mustard replied, somewhere in front of him, though he sounded much farther away than the space suggested.

“Thank goodness, I knew you would be! We need to get to the other tower right away, Raihan is trapped inside!”

“I know, dear boy. Don’t worry, it is already taken care of.”

“Taken care of?”

“He has completed his trial, and quite brilliantly!”

Leon froze.

”He…he what?”

“I’ve sent Piers back to the Dojo to rest, poor lad had quite the scare. Could barely convince him to let us go, but Honey will make sure he gets some tea and biscuits in him.”

“And…and Raihan?”

“He’s here, standing next to me.”

“Hey, Lee,” Raihan’s voice came from the same direction and Leon’s entire body relaxed when he realized his partner was okay. Kubfu made a delighted sound in his arms, and he laughed with her.

“Arceus, Rai, are you alright?” He started trying to feel his way through the dark, but there was nothing except more and more of it.

“I’m fine, Lee. Better than! I can’t wait to tell you about the Tower of Water, it was…” The note in his voice had Leon breaking out into a wide smile.

“Mus said you finished your trial! I’m so bloody proud of you!”

“Ta, mate,” Raihan said, and his grin was apparent despite not being able to see it. “Sorry it had you and Piers worried.”

“I’m just so glad you’re alright! Mus, turn the lights on, would you? I think I got myself turned around again, I can’t find where you two are standing.”

There was only the deep silence of the dark.

“Mus?”

“He’s not here,” Raihan said quietly.

“What? But he was a few minutes ago!”

“He went back downstairs to make his way back to the Dojo. Probably to make sure Piers was alright.”

“Wait, how do you know he went down the stairs? I can’t see anything in here.”

“I can.”

There was something strange in his tone, something grim, something resigned. Leon couldn’t help but feel a bit unnerved.

“Ah, is my trial last, then?”

“No.”

Leon gave a frustrated huff. “Rai, cryptic doesn’t suit you. Mus only gets away with it because he’s _actually_ old and wise.”

“I’m…I’m not being cryptic. I’m…I’m just scared. Buying myself a little more time.”

“Time?”

“Mustard isn’t going to be doing your trial. I am.”

Something squirmed in his stomach, and he took a step back.

“Oh…” He swallowed nervously. “Um, alright. What…what are we supposed to do?”

No answer, just the endless, endless—

“Raihan!”

“Fuck, I didn’t know how much I’d relied on Piers to help us work through our stuff…” Raihan choked out. “This is…this is terrifying without him here.”

“What are you talking about? Please, Rai, I’m not—”

“A false balance. One I didn’t realize we had,” Raihan said. “Have you ever noticed that there’s so much we don’t have to say, because he already knows? We always joke that he’s probably better suited to psychic types, but I think I’ve figured it out. It’s because truth comes out in the dark. People think that the purpose of the dark is to hide, to deceive, but it’s exactly the opposite, isn’t it? Or maybe, not the opposite. Maybe a spectrum of the two. One he and Rose wielded differently.”

“The Darkest Day…” Leon murmured, thinking it over. “When the hidden truths of everything Rose had been doing was dragged out into the light.”

“And who knew the entire time how it would happen?”

“Piers did.”

“Two ends of the spectrum. Piers knew what to look for because Rose was using the other end of it, the part that people _should_ fear most, but making sure everyone feared Spikemuth for using the dark as a way to expose the truth instead.”

“What does that have to do with you and I? You said we have a false balance. Between us?”

“Yeah,” Raihan said quietly. “Do you remember when I came home during yours and Piers’ first scene together?”

“Of course I do, you both took my world apart and put it back together, it was amazing.”

“It was, but that’s not the part that I laid awake thinking about.”

Leon instinctively reached out at the sadness in that beloved voice.

“I tried to push it down, tried to not be hurt about it, but…but I just got a lesson in letting myself feel more than one type of way about something in that tower and I’m going to fucking use it. It _was_ amazing, but if I hadn’t come home when I did, I wouldn’t have gotten to experience any of it.”

Leon took in a sharp breath, suddenly realizing what he meant.

“Raihan—”

“No! This is…this is exactly it. You trust Piers, because he sees how deeply your truths run. And he doesn’t look away from them, isn’t afraid or phased by them, no matter how dark they get.”

Leon shook his head, and he suddenly realized he wasn’t holding Kubfu anymore. Alone and with nothing to cling to while Raihan dug through the messy pulp of something he hadn’t wanted to admit to himself.

“But not me,” Raihan said shakily. “You don’t…you don’t trust me like that. When I…when I first came in, you looked terrified of me joining you, of helping Piers in bringing you under. You even asked me not to laugh at you, thinking that if you somehow messed up in front of me, I would…what? What would I do, Leon? What do you think happens if you…if you aren’t perfect in front of me?”

“Don’t, Raihan,” Leon said coldly, and in the sudden absence of sound, even below the strange sounds of the darkness, he could hear Rose’s voice echoed in his own.

Hidden, insidious, and exactly what he feared more than anything in the world.

_Oh…_

“That…” Raihan said in the most heartbroken voice Leon had ever heard, and his own felt broken, trying to reach out for one of the most precious people in his life. “That, right there, is our false balance. And I won’t let it keep me from you one fucking second longer. I won’t lose you and Piers to Rose _or_ the scars he’s left on us. Battle me.”

“What?” Leon gasped.

“You heard me. Battle me. Right now.”

“How? I can’t even see you!”

“You have literally won battles while blindfolded in front of thousands of people for stupid internet challenges. Including against me. You know my battle style better than anyone, you’ll figure it out.”

“Fine!” Leon growled angrily, reaching for his…

His hand came away empty, and he suddenly realized his belt was gone.

“Ah. That would be Mustard’s doing. Don’t worry, they’re safe at the Dojo.”

“How the fuck am I supposed to battle you with no Pokémon?”

“You have one in front of you. I’m looking right at her.”

Leon felt like his entire body had turned to ice. Kubfu? She barely had any training, didn’t even have a solid bond with him yet. Wasn’t evolved. He couldn’t possibly win with—

The sound of Flygon being released from the Pokéball was the single most horrifying sound he had ever heard, save for one dragon of made of poison and fear. Raihan said he could see him, when he was sightless in the dark. He had only one Pokémon, with little to no experience in battle. And Raihan had his full team.

There was…

There was no way to win.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head. “No, that’s not…”

“Lee, I’m going to attack. Whether you fight back or give up is entirely up to you.”

“Raihan, don’t—”

Too late, a whistle through the air and Kubfu shrieked before he heard the sound of her hitting the wall to his left echo through the tower.

His senses kicked into high gear, and the world narrowed into something he understood.

“Kubfu, use—”

He was sent reeling when he realized he knew nothing about this Pokémon besides what he had seen on Piers’ Rotom. It felt like getting thrown from a raid den. He didn’t know what moves it had, what its ability was, any of its stats.

“Raihan,” he choked out. “Raihan, I can’t—there’s no way to—”

“Win?”

_—almost won! You should have seen it, Chairman, I wish you had been there for it! He is amazing!”_

_Eager to give up your title already?_

_Leon had laughed, and it wasn’t until so much later that he wished he hadn’t._

_Of course not, sir! But it will have to happen sometime, won’t it? Change is as inevitable as it gets, especially with Pokémon. Won’t surprise me when Raihan eventually beats me._

_Hm, I suppose not. What do you think will happen if he does?_

_Happen?_

_Yes, I wonder that myself. The crowds are vicious, packs of Lycanroc looking for blood. I suppose it is in human nature to be so, but I worry what they will do if you lose._

_Nothing so terrible as all that, I’m sure! Leon had said jovially. People are good at their core. I’ll be fine, nothing some time won’t fix. The media will tire of me and move onto the next Champion._

_Will they? I’m not so sure. Your teacher, Mustard, had to leave the mainland. There’s a reason he started that Dojo so far away._

_That had given Leon pause._

_And if they do move on, will you be alright with that? With no one caring about you anymore? I remember you taking Professor Magnolia’s girl’s leaving rather hard. Poor thing, couldn’t handle the loss. Thankfully Raihan’s not one to care so much about losing. But I wonder what he might do if he won. He says, after all, that his goal is beating you. He’s never said what happens to you after…_

He wished he had never listened to a word of it, had never let that kind of poison in, but it had long since done its damage. The longer he spent with Rose in every facet of his life, the more of himself he’d closed off. He’d known, even as he lied to himself, that he didn’t want to become the Chairman. And how very, very easy it would be to do exactly that.

Kubfu whimpered as she stood shakily to her feet before running over to him, and he was suddenly jolted back into the darkness by her fur against his legs, his eyes wide and terrified and Raihan _could still see him_.

“What happens if you lose, Lee?”

“Stop!”

“Lee, you need to trust me! I can’t help you move past him unless you let me.”

“No!” He shouted. He couldn’t, couldn’t trust Raihan not to leave him, not to throw him aside as soon as he had the victory he wanted, it wasn’t safe, wasn’t safe, wasn’t—

“Yesterday,” Raihan said quietly. “I said the people on the mainland wouldn’t get it, why I was comfortable losing to you. It’s because I trust you with that, Lee. Because you have never, not once, looked down on me for losing. You have never let the people forget for one moment that I am your rival, that my skill and value has nothing to do with whether I win or lose. And what did I say after that?”

“That…that you would do the same for me. That they would never know how close you would hold me if you won,” Leon said, and it felt like his strings had been cut, nothing left to give, no more energy or pretense.

He sank to his knees, gathered up Kubfu in his arms and held her tight before he placed her in front of him. He wished he could see her expression, the stance of her body, but he would have to trust that she wasn’t going to do anything that would hurt her permanently.

She patted his hand and stepped away. So be it, then.

“Do you trust me, Lee?”

He couldn’t speak, didn’t even want to be present for this. He’d lost once already, but being defeated by Gloria would never, ever hurt as much as the thought of Raihan walking away.

Sonia’s rivalry had been the cost of winning. It was fitting that Raihan’s would be the cost of losing.

He heard the battle, but from a distance. It lasted longer than he’d assumed, he supposed. Kubfu was a fierce warrior in spite of everything, and he wished he could have been what she needed, could have been stronger for her so that she could grow into her full potential. He resolutely refused to think of Hop.

“Do you trust me?”

He wanted to. He wanted to more than anything in the world. Raihan was right, he had trusted Piers right from the start, because of all of them, Piers had already demonstrated how gentle he could be, even when he wielded power.

But he had never given Raihan that same chance, despite Raihan being the only person he could trust with anything— _everything_ —else.

Her struggles were getting weaker, and his loss grew nearer. He was out of time, would have to make one, all-encompassing decision if he wanted any chance of being with them.

His style had always been an all-out one. No hesitation, one hit, everything on the line.

He could do this.

He felt his entire body lose its tension, let his eyes close and the tears escape the corners of them. Let himself be caught up in the waves of the inevitable, trusting that his hope would buoy him despite the threat of getting pulled under.

Raihan wouldn’t let him drown.

“Lee, do you _trust_ me?” He could hear Kubfu barely moving, too drained to do more than lay her tiny head against him while she waited for the knockout.

Trusting, patient with herself, and he took courage in the fact that she had learned it before him.

“I trust you,” he whispered.

The humming around them stopped, the sound of a distant ocean barely heard through the walls and everything was suddenly loud again, at normal volume instead of muffled by the dark.

Strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him so close, so gently, his head against a familiar shoulder, the smell of petrichor and the mountains and _home_ filling his senses, soft hands in his hair and softer lips against the side of his face.

“I love you,” Raihan breathed, and Leon couldn’t even think about moving, his body wracked with sobs and so much _relief_. “I have always loved you. _Will_ always love you. You are a piece of my soul. Your truths are safe in my care, too. There’s a reason I fell in love with Piers, and it sure as hell isn’t because I’m afraid of the dark.”

Leon coughed a weak laugh at that, and when he opened his eyes, the light in the room was exactly what one could expect at midday with one window. Nothing hidden in shadow, the sunlight warm on his face. He took in a breath, releasing it slowly and leaning back to take Raihan’s face in his hands.

“I never knew what the cost would be,” he said haltingly. “He…he would never say directly. I would only know if I’d disappointed him when suddenly I’d have an impossible schedule on what was supposed to be my week off to go see Hop. Or my keycard at the hotel wouldn’t work and I’d have to choose between a lecture now or a lecture later after being late because I was sleeping in my tent instead of whatever room he’d booked. It was worse when I didn’t know if it was me or not. When he’d ‘forget’ to send money to the Spikemuth Pokémon Center after I’d reminded him he’d said he would. When Alistair would suddenly come to me going absolutely mental because he could barely stand from how busy the gym had gotten, right after I’d made a comment about feeling ‘worked to death’.”

Raihan’s arms tightened further, not looking away from him. Leon was beyond grateful for it.

“I…I never knew what he would do if I lost,” Leon sobbed, the words nearly impossible to get out through how much they hurt to say. “Every single day I wake up and I wonder if he unleashed Eternatus because he knew I was going to lose, that his favorite pawn would be useless to him. If it was my fault, if I had only…or that maybe he wouldn’t have if I had just been stronger and there was no threat of losing.”

It felt like a switch had been flipped, like things could begin to make sense. These were things he had been so afraid to say out loud, had thought he’d been content to let Piers know them in that way of his when he hadn’t realized how _saying_ them aloud to Raihan would feel. He buried his fingers in the soft material of the other’s dojo uniform and had the same sense of home he felt when he’d first touched this place.

“I know that it wasn’t my fault,” he finally said, hiccupping a bit when the tears started to slow. “That I have done and will keep doing whatever it takes to help repair some of the damage that he’s done, even if I didn’t do it directly. I know it in my head.”

“Does your heart know it, yet?” Raihan asked, tilting his face up to kiss him with so much love that Leon felt like he might pass out from it. He’d been so scared, for so long, and he needn’t have been.

“I think it’s starting to.”

“Good.” The sweetest of words, and Leon sighed happily into another kiss, feeling exhausted and rejuvenated all at once when Raihan kissed his tears away. The other looked down at the Kubfu laying against Leon’s leg, where she was studying them quietly, something serene on her face despite her injuries.

“C’mere, sweetheart. You did an amazing job, can’t believe you didn’t faint after the first hit.” Leon watched Raihan pull a potion from his bag, and Leon’s heart thudded hard in his chest thinking about Raihan knowing what would be needed.

_They always trust us to figure it out eventually don’t they?_

With her health restored, the Kubfu clambered to her feet, hugging them both before she wandered over to a scroll on the wall that had been hidden in the dark. She studied it carefully, looking back at them for a while, before returning her gaze to the words on it.

Leon and Raihan both took in a sharp breath when she tugged at her white hair strands and began to evolve. Leon gripped Raihan’s arm and his lover yelled in excitement as she reached her full height, folding her arms and nodding in a pleased manner when she looked down to observe her new form.

“She just…”

“Lee, you passed the trial!” Raihan shouted, knocking them both to the floor to kiss him soundly, the two of them laughing. “Urshifu, one that’s different from mine! Her strength lies in balance from the singular. An inner balance brought about by the acceptance of pluralities within oneself. She unleashes a supercharged blow, one that will obliterate her opponents once she has withstood an attack. She knows who she is, and little can fell her.”

Leon watched in awe as Raihan stood to release his own, and the two Urshifu looked at each other, cocking their heads back and forth as they took in their counterpart’s new form before touching paws and cheeks in delight.

“We actually did it!”

“I can’t believe it!”

“We need to get back to the Dojo right now! Piers is gonna go wild when he…”

They stared at each other.

“Mustard…went back to the Dojo. He…oh fuck, Piers is…there’s no third tower. No third Kubfu. That leaves the Dojo. And Mustard _always_ battles students during their trial. Like you said this morning.”

“The pitch in the field behind it,” Leon whispered.

“Raising them together in order to create a true balance.”

“And they’ve already evolved, which means…”

They nearly vaulted over the railing, throwing the doors open with a bang as they raced down the hillside towards the Dojo.

The building was silent when they finally flew through the doors, none of the students milling about. The only person in the main room was Honey, her expression concerned as she leaned against the frame of the open doorway that led to the pitch. She looked towards them and gave a slow, quiet sigh of relief, tilting her head towards the field.

“Go, he needs you.”

They didn’t hesitate, running out towards where they could see Piers with his arms folded tightly to him across from Mustard, the most defensive they had seen him since he’d set foot on the Isle. No microphone and stand to put between him and everything else.

The power spot beneath the grass aglow under his feet.


	6. Regain

Piers watched as Leon took off on Charizard’s back and wrung his hands for only a moment before he looked back towards the Tower of Water. He had to get to the top, and if the main entryway wouldn’t work, that left the windows.

Just as he was about to release Toxtricity to try and scale the side of the building, the doors opened.

Raihan stared at him like he had never seen him before, so many emotions running across his face so quickly that Piers could do nothing but open his arms and let Raihan knock him down into the sand, uncaring of the way it chafed and clung to his hair.

“Thank fuck,” he breathed. “Rai, what the actual—"

He rolled them to create a barrier between Raihan and the world, his lover whimpered into the kiss, in a way that had little to do with wanting and _everything_ to do with how badly it was needed. His brow furrowed at the sound, at the way the other’s hands were like claws at his back.

He pulled back, ran his fingers under Raihan’s eyes, across tear tracks that had just begun to dry. The rest of him was mercifully unscathed.

“You gonna tell me now, or later?” He asked, sitting them up so that he could hold Raihan as tightly as possible.

“Later,” Raihan whispered. “Nothing bad, but I have to—I need to get to the Tower of Darkness as soon as possible, before Lee does.”

“Go, I’ll be right behind you.”

Raihan shook his head and looked towards the tower, where Mustard was standing. He kissed Piers’ hand, didn’t take his eyes off him once as he backed away and released Flygon, and Piers waited until he was fully out of sight before he turned to face Mustard.

They stared at each other for a long while.

“What the hell…” he asked the older man, trying to breathe through the anger that was welling up just under his ribcage. “…did I just witness?”

Mustard smiled gently and walked over to press a key into his hand. “Growth, my dear boy. A kind not easily accomplished.”

He reared back incredulously. “What’s this, then?”

“This key will open the doors at the back of the Dojo. Will you go there and await my return?”

Piers gripped the key and took a step back. “Like hell I’m going to leave those two alone to face whatever the fuck you’ve—”

“Piers,” Mustard said, and Piers startled, shrinking back at how much was wrapped up in just his name in the other’s voice.

He turned and stared at the waves, the dark storm clouds gathering as they moved towards where Raihan and Leon were, finally swinging back around to look closely at Mustard.

His eyes were burdened, a reflection of his own, and he hissed when he realized just how much the other knew. Had likely known since they’d first shook hands.

“One good reason,” he eventually gritted out. “Give me one good reason why this is any different.”

“I can’t give you one,” Mustard murmured, and Piers wanted to scream. “Not if you’ve already decided that it isn’t.”

“Then why the fuck should—”

“Do you trust your partners to know what they need to find balance?”

The two Kubfu flashed through his mind as they went about securing what they needed and trusted the three of them to understand, to listen, and to do what they needed.

“Yes,” he said. It was everything they embodied in their scenes together. His partners knew what they needed, and it was his job to deliver that, to actualize it and make it real for them.

“Without your help?”

He hesitated.

Mustard looked towards the distance, and sighed. “I must go, if they get too much closer, I will not be able to catch up, and they are going to need me by their side until Raihan can step into it on his own.”

Piers took in a sharp breath. That meant Raihan would be alone to enact Leon’s trial. Without Piers there to guide them through it, without someone who could be trusted with that kind of—

He grimaced and heard the shadow of Rose’s laughter in his mind before he shook his head to dispel that most hated sound.

“I could try to keep you here,” Piers said, his hand going to his waist, touching the smooth metal encasing his team. “Keep you from influencing them any further.”

He should have known better. _Why_ had he thought it would be different? Stupid, naïve, always so desperate for people to prove that it wasn’t always—

Mustard smiled sadly at him and nodded. “Dearest lad, you wouldn’t even have to call on your Pokémon for that. I would stay if you asked it of me.”

It felt like the world had stopped.

There was nothing but honesty in any part of Mustard’s face.

He…he would…

“What?” Piers whispered.

“No one knows them as you do,” Mustard said simply. “I may have been their foundations, but you are who they have chosen to grow with, to be with, to walk with them in the day to day. If you think they would be better served without me going there now, I will defer to your wisdom.”

There was no way. It was unfathomable that someone who had more power than him would give it up, wouldn’t make him fight for it when it came to the people he loved. This man was the farthest thing from stupid, he knew he could take what he wanted and it was unlikely that Piers would be able to stop him. Piers could put up a fight, but this was the man who had successfully trained Leon, and Piers didn’t stand a chance if Mustard decided he wanted to go to that tower. So why was he—

Mustard held out a Pokéball to him.

His ride Pokémon. The one that would carry him fast enough to make it before Leon and Raihan found the tower.

He meant it. He _meant_ it. There was no sarcasm, no hidden depth to his words, no…

Piers could barely breathe.

No agenda.

Willing to listen to some punk with his hackles raised. It didn’t make sense, he didn’t understand. He reached out and put his hand on it, and Mustard didn’t pull away, didn’t try to stop him. He could…

He thought about Raihan and Leon, about the rift between them that he hadn’t been able to stop. Raihan’s disappearance when Leon needed him most had left wounds that Piers couldn’t fix alone, could only soothe over and keep from festering further until his lovers were able to work it out together.

He had watched as it began to happen here, the way they began to entwine and understand each other once more, the way it ought to be. He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d known they needed that more than anything, that he wasn’t angry that they hadn’t been with him during the first part of the trip. The loneliness he’d felt was a natural response to their absence, but it didn’t phase him. It was a small price to pay for them being able to reconnect. The three of their relationship depended on all of them being able to work through things together. Individually, in pairs, as a whole.

And Mustard had facilitated that, had fostered and nurtured that atmosphere for them, while also taking him into account. Not once had he been made to feel like he wasn’t valued, like his word was less than the Dojo master’s or his family’s just because he was an outsider to their group.

They…needed Mustard. Even if the thought of not being able to be there terrified him.

He pushed the ball back towards Mustard.

What else could he do, when it was Leon and Raihan’s well-being at stake?

“Thank you,” Mustard said quietly, and Piers turned sharply, unable to hear it when everything in him was screaming to take it back. “Piers…”

“What?” This was too much, he needed to think, needed to make sense of everything.

“I won’t be long. Just enough to check that Raihan has the space and time he needs to begin, and then I will go back to the Dojo. Honey will be there with tea and biscuits, if you’re interested.”

Piers glanced behind him. “And I don’t suppose this fuckin’ key will end up openin’ the back door if I go back, will it?”

“Only if you want to,” Mustard said, and Piers closed his eyes against how much understanding he wove into the words. “If you like, we can all sit and talk and eat together. Or you can stay in your room and await their return. Or any number of other options. They will not be taken from you.”

Piers squeezed his eyes tighter and nodded.

“Travel easy, lad. At least the cloud cover will help prevent a burn, hm? Amazing what water and darkness do together.”

And with that, he was gone.

At any other time, Piers might have never stopped laughing at the sight of someone climbing onto a Slowpoke’s back. He had seen their special training in action by this point, but it didn’t make the image any less bizarre.

As it stood, he thought he might cry as it raced off faster than even a Sharpedo, to go somewhere he could not.

/////

Honey’s hand ran through his hair to brush some of the sand out and he shot her a grateful look when she put down a cup of tea and a plate before him.

“Thanks,” he said, and she smiled in return. He felt less likely to snap now. He’d spent the first minutes of his return pacing again, until Honey had coaxed him to the table. He sighed and pressed the warmth of the cup against his forehead before he took a sip.

“Of course, love. No one here can stand this kind of biscuit, so really you’re doing me a favor.”

“Yeah, they’re an acquired taste.”

“Something tells me you have quite a few of those,” Honey said mischievously, and Piers nearly choked on his tea, quickly setting it down and laughing.

“Ms. Honey! Are you accusin’ me of somethin’ deviant?” He cackled when he gulped in enough air to speak. “ _Me_? I’m shocked!”

She giggled with him, patting his arm in apology. “Terribly sorry, darling, I don’t mean anything by it, of course. Only, your heart seemed so heavy when you walked in. You looked like you needed some laughter.”

“I did,” he said, looking away towards the back doors for a moment. The key felt heavy in the pocket of the uniform. “And it is.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

He hesitated before he nodded and took out the key, laying it on the table. “Can you tell me where this leads?”

“Outside, past those doors. There’s a pitch, where we do some of our more intensive training. It’s not for beginners, you have to have completed the Isle’s training to battle Mustard there.”

He bit his lip.

“But I’ve never undergone the training here.”

“My husband must feel you have, if he gave you that key.”

Piers mulled that over for a while, the two of them in silence as he considered that.

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. Mustard had been showing him something on that beach. Had given him a glimpse into something he had never been able to do before when it came to anyone other than Raihan and Leon, and even then, only in one facet of his life.

“Honey…” He breathed in deeply. “If I were to…go onto that pitch…do you think I’d learn something worth whatever I’d have to go through to learn it?”

Her hand was soft in his, and he glanced up to see her looking carefully at him. He felt unbearably _seen_ , and he took in a shaky breath.

“Darling, you already know the answer to that.”

“Please,” he whispered. “Just…I need to hear it from someone other than myself. Someone who knows Mustard and knows who I’ll actually be seein’ across from me.”

She drew him close, and he gripped her jumper like he might fall apart if he didn’t. It wasn’t too far of a stretch to think he might.

“It will be,” she said. “My husband would sooner leave this world than hurt someone in his care.”

He heard the doors open and close quietly, and he looked over Honey’s shoulder to watch Mustard smile at them and brush down his Slowpoke, freeing it of dust before returning it to its ball.

“Hello lad, good to see you here,” he said, and Piers could hear the willingness in it to do just as he’d said on the beach. He was free to settle in for another night, to enjoy good company until his partners came home. They would pass their trials, he was sure of it.

But…

He held up the key silently and Honey hugged him just a little tighter before she let him go.

Mustard didn’t ask him if he was sure, didn’t question his decision, and Piers breathed a sigh of relief when he simply nodded and gestured to the doors. “Shall we, then?”

They walked out together, and the heavy cloud cover made him feel a little better, just a bit more sheltered. He leaned against Mustard’s shoulder as they walked and tried to give a smile when the other looked at him, surprised.

“You’re shaking,” Mustard said, and Piers huffed out a laugh.

“M’terrified,” he replied. “Pretty typical response to fear.”

“Come sit with me on the bench awhile. There’s no rush, nothing you need to do right this very moment.”

“Ta, mate,” Piers said shakily, sinking down onto the solid wood of the bench, gripping it tightly. “M’sorry I bitched at you earlier. I…I know you’re not…”

“You don’t,” Mustard said gently. “And that’s not a bad thing. Trust is a thing that is earned, continuously, and often over a long period of time. And we have not had that time. How long did it take you to trust Raihan and Leon?”

Piers swallowed hard and he had to release the bench when he realized his hands were aching from holding on too tightly.

“Too long,” he said. “With Raihan, at least. Leon came into the relationship after Raihan and I had already done a lot of the groundwork. I’m grateful for that. Raihan has always been able to weather storms better than anyone I’ve ever met. It made all the difference, before I started goin’ to therapy and all that. I was an unhealthy mess, and he should have left. Almost did, more than once. But he didn’t, and we came out on the other side strong enough that I’m pretty sure it would take an act of Arceus to tear us apart, and probably not even that. It’s why I wasn’t worried about bringin’ Leon in, because I knew we would be able to figure out whatever unique challenges lovin’ him would bring to the table. I trust them both with everythin’ I am, no holds barred.”

He looked up, and Mustard had a soft, serene smile on his face, like he had when they sat together in the Tower of Darkness. “That, and more, dear boy. You have already mastered true balance. Your trust in yourself—in your own abilities, your truths—is strong. Your willingness to trust others, to let them in and accept them exactly as they are despite it posing a risk to you, is unparalleled in any student I have trained here.”

“If…if I’m already livin’ in true balance, then, why is there no peace?” Piers asked, brow furrowed and biting his lip hard against tears. He was so _tired_ of tears. “Every time I think I’ve finally figured it out, I’ll find myself lookin’ at my decisions and wonder if they’re too close to how he’d do them. I’m constantly afraid that I’m manipulatin’ the people I love just like he did, that I’m tellin’ myself lies to justify my actions.”

“Do those fears have a true foundation?”

And there it was. Fuck, he hated this. He lived in a balancing act, it was what he was good at. Truth in many things, in the singular, in the light or the dark or wherever it needed to exist. That he had been telling himself or those around him anything less than the truth made him want to rip his very heart from his chest.

He buried his face against his knees and nodded.

“M’not against Dynamax in general, it’s a tool of battle like anythin’ else,” he said, and gritted his teeth to keep going. “I’m against what he was _doin’_ with it, what I knew would happen if I gave in and let him put in a power spot. Fuck, what an apt name it is, yeah? All the funding I could ever need to rebuild Spikemuth, to take care of its citizens, all the backing of Macro Cosmos and its Chairman if I would just give over power and give him the ability to tear it all back down again at his whim. Took everythin’ some days not to say ‘yes’. When he…when my…” He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he _couldn’t_ —

“Darling boy, you don’t have to say your truths in one way for them to be real.” He turned his head from its place against his knees and Mustard was turned to him, his posture open and available, a choice for him to make, and a rejection of it would not be taken personally. “Use water, as it’s meant to be used. Let it aid the dark. The truth is not meant to hurt you.”

It sounded just like what he’d said to Raihan on the roof of their flat.

_You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true._

Raihan had been so understanding, but he hadn’t _understood_. Piers had a feeling he did now.

_I know. That’s why it hurt you so much. I know better than anyone that truth and the dark go hand in hand. You’re not supposed to use it to hurt the ones you love, and I did exactly that. I am sorry for it, and I’ll do better next time._

Different angles, different ways of seeing something. Different ways to talk about them. Honesty didn’t always look so direct. It was the other end of the spectrum, the one he feared because it had always been Rose’s extreme.

“When…he’d leave the room.” He sat back up, focusing hard. Yes, that felt less threatening. Keep him out of the picture, because he wasn’t needed. His presence wasn’t required in order for the singer to say what was real. “I would lay there wonderin’ if it made any difference. Not just the money, but if one day someone would replace me at the gym and not think twice about sayin’ ‘yes’ to him. Or if it went on long enough, would my resolve crumble and he’d get what he wanted anyways?”

He finally let himself take Mustard up on the hug, and it felt like when Marnie or Raihan or Leon or Nessa or Opal or Milo or any one of them pulled him close. This was family, a haven amidst the most dangerous of his fears.

“You have been trying to walk on a tightrope no one should ever have to tread,” Mustard said, and Piers nodded against his shoulder. “You do not fear balance, as so many do. You fear losing it.”

He didn’t realize the wounded sound he heard was from his own throat until Mustard held him tighter.

“I can’t,” he gasped out, and fuck if it didn’t feel like vindication when Mustard said it first. “I can’t, I won’t! I won’t be what he was, I’d rather fuckin’ die first!”

“Do you think that’s what will happen?” Mustard whispered, and for a long while there was only the sound of him trying and failing to take in enough breath.

“I…I don’t know. And I’m afraid of that. I’ve lived so much of my life without control, without the ability to protect myself or the people I love. And now he’s gone, and…I still can’t let it go. I don’t know how, and now it’s not him holdin’ Spikemuth back. It’s _me_. There’s no agenda, the new Chairman is amazin’, cares so much about Galar, about settin’ things right. Listens to us, has made moves and successfully started weedin’ out the people who thought Rose had the right of it. Doesn’t try to do or be anythin’ more than the League owner, just leadin’ the games like they’re supposed to. Hell, they broke up Macro Cosmos’ assets faster than Leon could! There’s no _reason_ not to have a power spot now, to take Spikemuth to new heights and let it go toe to toe with everyone else in the arena like I know it can. But I’m…”

“You’re not the one who could make that decision.”

“It’s why I left,” Piers said, and he grimaced at how small he sounded. “Marnie can make that call. She’s the best of us, always has been. She’s not long for the gym, has a thousand and one ambitions that don’t include stayin’ in Spikemuth. Didn’t know until later that she’d accepted the offer because she knew I wouldn’t be able to help us move forward anymore. She’s not lettin’ me get away with it, though, and fuck if I don’t love her for it. She won’t do anythin’ until I say somethin’. Or until I find someone to replace her who will make those decisions without my influence. But I…want to see it through. Want my city to have a chance at healin’.”

Mustard carefully pulled away, everything about him radiating in understanding, and Piers took in a deep breath.

“If…I were to give over control to you. If I still manage to keep my balance in spite of it, what happens?”

Mustard’s pleased smile soothed something in his soul as the older man got to his feet, gesturing towards the pitch.

“Would you like to find out?”

/////

The power spot glowed under him, and he wrapped his arms tightly around himself, wishing he had his mic with him. If nothing else, it would be nice to make some noise to distract him from the way he felt like he might throw up.

“Piers,” Mustard called to him. He looked up. “You have entrusted me with your well-being and I do not take it lightly. This ends the moment you say it does.”

He felt his body relax a little. Mustard had control, but he would retain the power. Balance, as he should have known.

“Are you ready, dear boy?”

He wasn’t. He really, really wasn’t. He had to, needed this more than anything. Needed to know what lay on the other side. But how the fuck was he supposed to choose which of his team was going to go through this with him? None of them had Dynamaxed before, were keen enough on his distrust and distaste for it to have formed their own aversions to it. How could he ask one of them to potentially step into that kind of trauma so he could deal with his own?

There was movement in his periphery, and Piers’ eyes went wide from shock when Leon and Raihan came running full tilt through the doors, taking everything in as they came to the edge of the field.

“Rai?” He choked out. “Lee?”

“Piers!” They yelled, and he didn’t even have time to register that they were actually here before he was folded tightly between them, their arms around him and protected between their strength as they talked over each other.

“Are you alright?”

He would be, he realized. If they were here, then the answer to that would always be ‘yes’.

“I am now,” he whispered.

His lovers quieted down as they all felt the hum of the energy under their feet.

Processing what that meant.

“Fuck, Piers,” Raihan said unsteadily. “This?”

Piers nodded against his chest.

They felt good against him, steadying and calming and absolutely everything that was going to get him through this in one piece.

The field was quiet, save for the brewing roll of thunder and their heartbeats against him.

“What do you need from us?” Leon asked.

It was becoming clearer, more in focus with the two of them here. He knew what needed to be done, and he knew what he needed to get there.

“Need you to keep holdin’ me,” Piers murmured. “Keep me balanced.”

“Not moving for the world,” Raihan said, kissing his forehead. “What else?”

_Oh…_

“Need the Kubfu to be the Pokémon who do this with me.” This would be their first Dynamax. They had no expectations. No fear or agenda. They could help him get through it as much as the reverse was true.

“We’ll do you one better,” Leon said, and Piers couldn’t help but smile at the excitement in his voice.

The two of them held onto his shoulders and tossed their Pokéballs onto the field, and Piers watched as two beasts emerged, their forms foreign and yet known to him in the way they looked around, their eyes alighting on him. They immediately came over to join the embrace, making pleased chuffing sounds at all of their humans in one place again.

“Urshifu, one of water and one of darkness,” Raihan said, and Piers’ forehead was headbutted gently by each of them. “Lee and I passed our trials.”

“They’re beautiful,” he said, taking in their differences, the confidence in their gaits making his heart soar. Were it not for their form differences, he’d have never known which one had clung to him, afraid of her own shadow. They had changed so—

They had…

 _Balance_. He realized. They had become balanced and so…

_And what comes after is—_

“Evolution,” he breathed. “Change.”

It felt like everything was moving so quickly as his thoughts raced, and yet so slowly.

Change itself was inevitable, but what it looked like, what forms it took, that was entirely created by the decisions made every day.

What changes would be made could be up to him as much as they would be in the hands of anyone else. And by giving up control, allowing for change to happen, he could keep control as well. The kind of spectrum that was many things and also just one thing. Meant to be shared, and it was why people like Rose couldn’t hold their power forever. He had been alone, when all was said and done, while Piers had not been.

His hand flew to his collar before he could talk himself out of it.

“I’m going to need you to throw the Pokéballs,” he said. “M’too out of practice.”

They paused, realizing what he meant, what he was about to do.

“Wait, how are they _both_ going to—”

“This whole Isle is a power spot.”

Leon and Raihan stared at him, wide eyed. He tapped his collar.

“Took the star out of my wristband and kept it in here. It’s how I knew what was waiting under Hammerlocke. And how I knew to help Gloria when everythin’ started Dynamaxing out of control. Macro Cosmos could turn off the wristbands, but not the wishin’ stars themselves if they weren’t connected to them. It was a reminder, to never forget who had Galar by the throat.”

He fought back the wave of fear threatening to choke him as he ignited the power spot, the Isle thrumming under them. More than enough energy for as many Dynamaxed Pokémon as they wanted.

“But not anymore. He’s not here, and I still am.”

He watched as the Urshifu were drawn back, and the Pokéballs grew with them. His partners hugged him close, and he was so grateful when they didn’t bother with showmanship in favor of each keeping an arm around him.

They launched them into the sky, and Piers forced himself to keep his eyes open, not to turn away as they grew and grew and grew. He wanted to see what the three of them had made together, everything their efforts had brought forth.

Two mighty towers with endless possibility between them stood on the battlefield, and Piers stared up at them. It was…so different on this side of the pitch, rather than looking across from him. It was more terrifying, certainly, but also…

And then all thoughts of Dynamax fled from his mind as Mustard let out an excited yell and backflipped, tossing his top and hat to the side and threw out two Pokémon of his own.

“The absolute bloody _what_ , old man?” He shouted, and Leon and Raihan let out answering catcalls beside him, all three of them laughing as Mustard winked and activated his own Dynamax band. “Fuckin’ hell, mate, why is everyone on this damn island fit but me?”

“Ready to show me what you know, lads?” He called, and Piers finally let the tears go as he laughed. This was exactly what he’d needed. Directness and distraction, blended to help him get past his own barriers.

“Piers, you know their moves aside from their form specific ones. Tell us what to do, and we’ll do it,” Leon said with a grin, pressing a kiss to his and Raihan’s cheeks.

“You’re going down, Mus!” Raihan crowed.

Mustard put a fist to his open palm and bowed before taking his battle stance.

“I look forward to it.”

/////

“Fuck, I am _never_ doin’ that again,” Piers laughed as he sank down to the grass as their Urshifu returned to their Pokéballs, his lovers’ arms still around him. “No encores on Dynamaxing for me. But that was brilliant!”

Everything felt so loud, the two of them hollering in his ear and Honey cheering wildly from the doorway and Mustard’s delighted clapping.

And yet he had never felt more at peace.

/////

Leon sighed as water cascaded down his back, everything sore and exhausted in the best ways as he leaned his forehead against the wall and let himself truly process the week that they’d had. He missed Mustard and the Dojo already, but it was also so good to be home, the sounds of Hammerlocke muffled beyond the walls of the flat.

_Take care of each other, lads. You are always, always welcome here._

A quiet aside, and one he wouldn’t be ready to answer for many years, but one he knew would make him pause and think every so often; to check where he was, to asses how much had changed, and if they were ready to step into what might be their journey someday.

_When I am gone, would the three of you consider running the Dojo in my place? Of course you don’t have to, there have been and will be many worthy teachers before I’m ready to rest. But, if that ever piques your interest, the option is always there._

He didn’t realize how long he’d been standing under the water until he suddenly felt soft lips along his shoulders, a set of hands on his back as Raihan eased out the knots near his spine. Another set against his chest when Piers ducked under his arm to be between him and the wall.

“Oh, this is already so much better than the fantasy,” Raihan said cheekily, and Leon gave a breathy laugh, tugging Raihan down by his locs for a kiss.

He moaned quietly when Piers sucked at a nipple, biting lightly and making him grind back against Raihan, who snaked an arm around him to hold him still for Piers. The singer went to his knees, pressing quick, open mouthed kisses against his stomach while his hands worked over his cock, and he gasped when that talented mouth joined the efforts, the warm, wet heat of his throat even better than that of the shower.

He could get lost here, between them.

“Piers, would you… _oh_ , that feels so good.” He whimpered when Raihan settled behind him, but he couldn’t get distracted. He wanted— “Would you open me for him?”

Raihan took in a sharp breath behind him.

“Fuck, Lee,” he moaned, and Leon felt his cock twitch against him. Piers pulled off his length and his eyes were dangerous, hungry, and pleased with him.

“Face him, love. Let him see what he does to you.”

His heartrate sped up. That was…

He turned, staring up at Raihan, and the other leaned back against the shower wall, bringing him close and slipping a leg between his to let him ride it while Piers rummaged through their shower supplied for something to use.

Raihan’s eyes were locked on his, the intensity of them overwhelming and Leon ran his hands over the other’s sides, breaking away only to kiss and bite at the other’s neck, living for the soft noises of pleasure his lover made when he laid his head against Raihan’s chest and ran his cheek back and forth over sensitive skin. His cock leaked against the corded muscles of Raihan’s thigh.

Piers spread him open, making him shiver, knowing the two of them were making the kind of eye contact he’d first seen in a boardroom in Wyndon. He wanted that, so badly.

“Tell him what you want,” Piers said as he slid a finger into him, and he jolted. Fuck, fuck, he knew what he was craving, and now…

_Do you trust me?_

He breathed out. Raihan wouldn’t judge him, wouldn’t walk away if Leon let him in.

He looked up at his beloved and didn’t stop, let Raihan _see_ him, no matter how terrifying it felt.

“I want this,” he whispered. “I want to be able to share this with you both. I want _you_ to show me how.”

Raihan looked like he might cry and propose all at once, and Leon’s heart thundered in his chest when the other tilted his face up, held him there to make sure he could not look away.

“We’ll start like this,” Raihan said, and Leon gasped out when Piers thrust two fingers into him, his hands flying up to grip Raihan’s forearms tightly. “It will take time before we can do this without physical contact. But let me show you where to start.”

“Yes,” he breathed, and Piers rewarded him by pushing relentlessly against his prostate, until he was writhing against Raihan, trying desperately to keep his eyes open against how good it felt.

“Good, keep your eyes on mine,” Raihan said, his voice low and entrancing. “Remember that I see you, no matter how dark things get. Our intimacy is not just our bodies. My soul yearns for yours even when you’re right next to me.”

Leon bit his lip, the nervousness giving way to something heated, something that heard Raihan’s words and felt the answering pull.

“Come back with me a bit. Do you remember the holiday gala from two years ago?”

He nodded.

“I saw you from across the room and thought I might lose my mind with how much I wanted you, with how much I loved you and how much I ached from thinking I wouldn’t ever be able to tell you that. Piers, what was it you said?”

He shivered when the singer added a third finger, hooking a chin over his shoulder to whisper in his ear.

“I told him that one day, if he was brave enough, you wouldn’t be across the room. You’d be there, next to us, and we could spend our time in each other’s company rather than pretendin’ to laugh at somethin’ some sponsor or another said.”

“So let’s go there,” Raihan said, and it was all too easy to let himself melt into the fantasy of it, the way his voice and eyes pulled Leon in so effortlessly. “But with what we have now. Because it would have ended very differently. If we’d caught eyes, it wouldn’t have mattered how far apart we were, the result would be the same. They’d show what I wanted to do with you, how badly I wanted to find some secret corner, away from everyone there. We’d be in a rush, trying to make sure no one missed us, but it wouldn’t stop me from taking my time to get you wet and open for me.”

He whimpered when Piers withdrew his fingers, feeling far too empty without them. But he didn’t look away.

Raihan leaned more heavily against the wall and lifted Leon into his arms, the powerful flex of them making Leon ache to be filled. “And then I’d have you like this,” he murmured, lowering Leon onto his cock, the slide of it so deep, so perfect in him, and he cried out when Raihan worked himself in further, little shunts of his hips that tested Leon’s resolve to keep his eyes open.

They were heavily lidded, his breath visible in the steamed air as he panted, held open and speared on Raihan’s cock. Piers’ hands returned, lathered in soap, and he let Raihan’s movements aid him in washing Leon’s back, his shoulders, eventually returning with shampoo to do his hair.

Every push into him brought him closer, his body overwhelmed.

“ _Nnh_! Please, Rai!”

“I’d put my hand over your mouth to keep you quiet, let how tightly you’d squeeze your fingers against me tell me better than words how much you’d wanted that.”

So much, so very much. To be taken and possessed and driven into, over and over, until there was nothing else but the two of them and he could _see_ it, could _feel_ it, with or without Raihan’s hands on him, touching him so intimately.

He suddenly realized he was still looking at him, seeing images over images, a layered vault of potential.

“And perhaps, for just a moment, you’d remember that none of it was happening. That we’d drifted closer, drawn in because I will _always_ be drawn in and captivated by you, but that we hadn’t touched once. It wouldn’t matter. I’d have you coming in the next moment, and your body wouldn’t have done a single thing.”

Once wouldn’t have been enough. He’d wanted Raihan so badly, he wouldn’t have settled for just one hidden alcove. No, they’d have to find them all.

“But here, right now,” he said against Leon’s ear, finally freeing him to close his eyes and lose himself entirely. “I _am_ touching you, and I want your body to sing for mine.”

Yes, yes, like this, like—

“Come for me, Leon.”

He spilled between their stomachs with a choked off cry of Raihan’s name, the edges of his world blurred. Not quite fully under, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t want that right now, wanted to stay present and here with Raihan’s arms around him and Piers kissing along his spine as he floated back down to earth. His cock gave one last weak spurt when Piers ran his thumb over where Raihan was still inside him, and finally he was lowered to the ground on shaky legs, leaning heavily against the dragon trainer while Piers rinsed them all off one last time before he turned off the shower.

Raihan was still hard, and Leon reached out to help finish him off before Piers put a hand on his arm and shook his head. The singer looked up at Raihan and Leon shivered despite having just come, knowing that those looks meant Piers had plans of his own.

They toweled each other off, putting hair up to dry and rubbing lotion onto each other’s skin to counteract how hot and dry parts of the Isle had been.

“Oh,” Leon mumbled when they climbed into bed, eyes heavy and feeling like he could sleep for a week. “The lotion…Piers, you didn’t get heat stroke or a sunburn, did you?”

Piers giggled tiredly and shook his head. “Should penalize you both for threat of heart attacks, but I suppose you’re right. A month it is. I reserve the right to reject the wing abomination though.”

“You are _no_ fun,” Leon muttered, grinning when Piers smirked at him and kissed his nose.

He woke sometime in the middle of the night, cracking an eye open.

He sighed contentedly when he could see the two of them locked together, Piers’ hair splayed out on the pillow and his hands gripping the other’s thighs as Raihan slowly fucked himself back on Piers’ cock, the two of them ethereal and incandescent together.

He watched the rise and fall of it, a tide that would always mean home to him. They were silent, save for the occasional whisper of each other’s name. An ‘I love’ you pressed against Raihan’s chest when Piers sat up to gather Raihan in, his tall form wrapped around the singer while Piers worked his own hips now, and an answer in kind when Raihan let himself just feel, let Piers do what he would so he could bask in how good it felt to be cared for like this.

“Somethin’s different,” Piers whispered, and Leon watched Raihan shiver and nod, the same feeling of their world shifting into something new, something better, settling inside Leon’s chest as he watched them move, just a few moments more. “I’ve never…this is…”

Raihan’s hand gripped Piers to him, the other in his hair, and Leon knew he had come by the way his shoulders quivered, the way he kept making little movements against Piers, chasing that last bit of connection before it would be too much.

Piers followed after, head tipped back and drawing Raihan in for a long kiss to muffle his quiet sounds of pleasure. They slowly laid back against the pillows, exhausted and sated, and clung to each other a while longer before they cleaned each other up and Piers leaned over to kiss Leon’s forehead.

“Go back to sleep, love,” he said, and Leon wrapped himself around him, caressing Raihan’s face when the other took his hand and kissed his palm, all of them quick to fall into dreams together.

Another tower called to them, one that would embody everything they’d learned. A gift to Galar as they tore down an ugly legacy to build a better one, a time to enjoy what they would create.

And then, perhaps, something entirely new.

The Isle, the mainland, it didn’t matter.

Right here, the three of them close together, was where they most wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for getting through this one with me! The DLC sprang out and slapped my emotions around a whole bunch and it didn't feel quite right to make a standalone fic when it melded so perfectly with the Hands in Mine verse. I realize this is an extremely philosophical/wordy/stream of consciousness type fic compared to my others (I write porn with plot, not the other way around lmao), so if there is any further clarification needed, I am happy to chat!
> 
> And a reminder, as always, to pop over to my DMs and yell with me about Pokemon! My Twitters are my main/cosplay: (shyloren) and my Pokemon side account: (CryptidPiers). I also have IG: (kesstiel) for those who like that instead!


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